GREENWOOD, Ind. – Flu cases are climbing across the country and right here in central Indiana. The CDC reports a majority of those cases are Influenza A. Experts are now saying this is one of the worst flu seasons in a very long time.
“I think the peak will surpass at least the last seven or eight years for sure,” said Dr. John Christenson, the associate medical director of Infection Prevention with Riley Hospital for Children
Both the CDC and the Indiana Department of Health are reporting very high levels of flu activity which is the most severe classification. Emergency room visits and hospitalizations are also up.
“They have chairs lining up outside of the emergency room waiting to be seen,” Dr. Christenson said. “If you drive around town and you drive by urgent care centers, doctors offices, you will notice there are a lot of cars in the parking lot, day and night, just because there are a lot of people who are sick with it.”
Central Indiana school districts are seeing the impact of high flu case numbers too, and some schools have had to close or go to e-learning because of it.
“We have not gotten to that point yet but we have gotten to where we have had a lot of absences with our students,” said Terry Terhune, the superintendent with Greenwood Community Schools. “Some of our schools in our community, one of the private schools has closed down for a few days. Apparently, it’s been bad there.”
Greenwood Community Schools is one of many districts in the state seeing a considerable number of flu cases. Our FOX59/CBS4 team spoke with one of the nurses here who said it’s just been ‘nonstop’ of kids coming in and out of the nurse’s office.
“I would say this is as bad as I can remember in my short time here,” Terhune said. “It’s really impacted just the number of absences and the number of substitutes we are trying to find to cover classes and things like that.”
Our FOX59/CBS4 team spoke with several other local school districts on the phone and they are all in agreement, the flu is bad this year. That’s why many places, like Greenwood Community Schools, are taking extra precautions to keep students and staff healthy and safe.
“Wash your hands more often,” Terhune said. “Clean high-touch areas. We are asking our custodians to hit [the high touch surfaces] like doorknobs and desks, water fountains, just trying to be really cautious. When you sneeze, cover your mouth. When you cough, cover your mouth little things like that to try and remind our kids and even our adults to try to limit spread as much as we can.”
For more information on nationwide flu trends, click here. For statewide flu trends, click here.
