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Doctor gives tips on how to combat the flu this season
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BATON ROUGE — The CDC released a report on Friday showing that there's currently a 10-year high in the rate of children visiting the doctor's office for the flu.
"This time of year always sees a surge in flu cases," Primary Care Physician at Ochsner Health, Dr. Clayton F. Runfalo said. "The holiday season is over, people are coming back from traveling kids are going back to school. "
According to Runfalo, the super flu that's going around is a simple variant of influenza A, a "new mutation."
"They call it a super flu because if you've had the flu already this season, there's a chance you could get it again. "
Runfalo shared that some precautions people can take to lower their chances of contracting the flu include getting the flu shot, handwashing, an elbow bump instead of shaking hands and an overall healthy lifestyle, including a good diet and plenty of rest.
He also shared that people are usually contagious before they develop symptoms.
"You frequently get exposed to the flu three to five days before you develop symptoms, and you're highly contagious during that time. Once you develop symptoms, we typically say [you're contagious] about a week, seven days."
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