What to know about flu season in San Diego

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hyneman. For today's show , we are talking with award winning author Jesmyn Ward ahead of her appearance at the Writers Symposium by the sea. But to top our show , we'll have the latest on rising flu cases across the county. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Flu season is in full swing , and the surge in cases has raised alarms all across the country. Here in San Diego , there have been 105 flu deaths , making this season deadlier than the past two seasons combined. My next guest is here to talk more about this spike in cases and what to do if you get the flu. Laura Truman is a clinical professor at the University of San Diego and director of their nurse practitioner program. She also works at a local urgent care. Professor Truman , welcome to midday.

S2: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

S1: Glad to have you here. So , you know , every flu season is a bit different , but this one has been especially brutal.

S2: Every year it seems to we don't quite know what the pattern is going to be. This season's a little bit different where it started a little bit later in the season. Normally we'll see flu cases around Christmas , January , but it seemed to start a little bit later this year. We had quite a flu surge into January and continuing now into February , so normally it's just a little bit later than we typically see. And our patients are are sick fevers , chills , body aches , headaches , typical flu type symptoms.

S1:

S2: Usually it's pretty high fever severe headaches body aches and chills. Most mild symptoms patients don't tend to come into the urgent care setting. What does bring them in is the persistent cough or even dehydration symptoms. Yeah.

S3: Yeah.

S1:

S2: But the majority of patients that we're seeing is influenza A.

S1: Is this a stronger strain than we've seen in the past.

S2: Influenza tends to be a little bit more severe with your symptoms high fever , body aches and chills than influenza B , although I just worked this past weekend and I did see my first two cases of influenza B , so influenza B typically shows up later in the season. A second surge , usually the springtime , now early summer , supposed to be a little bit milder than influenza A , usually has a little bit more of GI side effects. So some nausea , vomiting and diarrhea. But I can tell you , the patients I thought this saw this weekend definitely were feeling some of the symptoms. So really important to get vaccinated. You can get the vaccine does cover influenza A and influenza B strain.

S1: So with influenza B comes nausea vomiting anything else that people should watch out for with that one also.

S2: Typically causes some fevers , body aches and chills. So it's sometimes you can't distinguish between the two on symptoms alone. But we do have testing. We you can actually pick up a home test. Influenza A B and a Covid home test at your local pharmacy is just as reliable as the tests we use in the urgent care.

S1:

S2: They have fever , they're not drinking. Their appetite is down. And so they come in there , they're feeling poorly. Their heart rate is elevated. They're having some dizziness. Their urine output is a little bit decreased. And so definitely some signs of dehydration really at dry mouth. Some secondary complications that we do see is a secondary pneumonia. So this one we do have to watch out for with our patients , especially patients that are in the older range and patients that have underlying chronic medical conditions like asthma or COPD. Hmm.

S3: Hmm. Well , you.

S1: Mentioned there are at home test for both Covid and the flu.

S2: I haven't seen that recently. We're really not seeing , at least in my practice , I haven't seen too many Covid cases. Its majority is influenza A. We have seen patients that come in influenza A and also have strep throat. So sometimes you just don't know. Yeah.

S3: Yeah.

S1: With so many people sick with influenza and various other things that are floating around out there. The care at urgent care isn't so urgent , right ? I mean , there's there are a lot of patients , um , and sometimes it's you have to weigh the risks a bit in terms of , like , contracting something at the urgent care or the emergency department. Right ? Yes.

S2: That's always the risk. That's why it's really important to do hand washing , uh , hand washing and , um , you know , for mild symptoms , if you're healthy , you don't have any chronic respiratory illnesses or chronic diseases. Your symptoms are mild. You can definitely treat your symptoms at home. Um , resting over-the-counter cough and cold medicines , staying hydrated , and looking out for any of those worsening symptoms. And most important is stay home. Stay home. Don't pass this to other people because it's highly contagious.

S1:

S2: Um , if your symptoms are 48 hours or less , we can give for some patients Tamiflu. And that helps to lessen the symptoms and decrease the amount of time that you're having some symptoms. Yeah.

S3: Yeah.

S1:

S2: And unfortunately it's a it is a virus. Antibiotics do not treat influenza. Um , now they potentially can treat. There is a place for antibiotics for secondary bacterial infections like pneumonias or a sinus infection , or maybe a secondary ear infection , but typically for the virus , it's just really symptomatic management resting flu fluids and again the Tamiflu. Um , the other misconception I have is that the flu vaccine causes influenza. Really , the data doesn't suggest that sometimes you're just exposed to the flu and you happen to get the flu vaccine , um , recently. But I definitely would recommend especially this flu season. It's a tough one is to get vaccinated. And , uh , if you have had influenza A in this flu season , like I had said , influenza B is starting to show up in our local urgent care. So the influenza vaccine can protect you from both A and B strains.

S3: And let me.

S1: Ask you this too , before we go , like for many toddlers and younger children , things like cough syrup , you know , are ineffective.

S2: So really , we say just sipping on some warm fluids , um , making sure the child stayed hydrated , polite , or say they even have Pedialyte. Popsicles is really good keeping , especially for infants. Keeping the nose clear of any secretions with a bulb syringe is helpful. Just a warm bath or a tepid bath. But cough and cold medications for young children is actually potentially dangerous. There are some children's , um , all natural cough and cold medications that I do tend to recommend to my smaller patients , but really it's just supportive and try and avoid any of the cough and cold medicines. Hmm.

S1: Hmm.

S2: I really want to avoid some of the multi symptom medications that have decongestants. If you have patients that have history of high blood pressure usually there , or diabetes. They have some cough medications that are sugar free. So really important to read the labels , especially for the multi symptom cough and cold medications. And when in doubt it's warm tea with honey rest fluids chicken soup. The things that you know usually tend to help some of our symptoms too.

S3: All right.

S1: Well I've been speaking with Laura Truman , clinical professor and director of the University of San Diego's Nurse Practitioner program. Professor Truman , thank you so much for joining us. And stay well.

S2: Thank you. You too.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.