Flu Season | Video

Kristin Clouston | 1/2/2013

Flu season appears to have come early this year. The number of people who have had it so far is way more than at this time last year. Last year at this time there were seven reported cases of flu. This year, 625 cases have already been confirmed in the state. Flu season typically doesn`t start until later in the winter but doctors say it can spread anytime large numbers of people get together like at Thanksgiving, or Christmas or New Years Eve.

If you`re afraid of getting the flu there`s a couple things you can do that might help you dodge it.

"The best thing you can do, whether you have a cold or no,t is wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. If you have some coughing or sneezing do it into your elbow and if you use a Kleenex tissue dispose of it and wash your hands, because the virus is on any surface you touch and it lives for some time," said Vonnie Ereth with Burleigh County Health.

There`s also still time to get a flu shot.

"It protects you from both Influenza A and Influenza B and there`s actually still a little bit of the H1N1 in the component of the vaccine," Ereth said.

If you`re coming down with the flu, doctors can give you a medication called Tamiflu.

"Ideally, you want to get at people between 24 and 48 hours as you look at the response rates for Tamiflu with regards to shortening the illness, shortening the severity and maybe preventing complications," said Dr. Thomas Thorson with Sanford Health.

Signs of the flu include a cough, runny nose and sore throat

"But there`s also going to be non-cold type things like chills, body aches and feeling bad and always a good question to ask is whether it`s been bad enough to keep you home from work or in bed a while," Thorson said.

The majority of this year`s flu cases are in children 10 and under, but 18 people have been hospitalized and the majority of them have been adults.

One North Dakotan has died from the flu this year. Physicians say the best way to beat the flu is to get plenty of rest and fluids. There are also a lot of people throwing up and having GI problems, but the doctor I talked to said that isn`t the actual flu, so there aren`t any numbers for that one. Influenza is more of an upper respiratory problem.

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