Texas health officials bracing for intense flu season

HOUSTON - Texas health experts say we're in for a severe flu season, more intense than we've seen in the past few years.

"It is starting early, we know that," said Hana El Sahly, Professor of virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine. 

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She says our nation should be bracing for an intense flu season and that Texas is already leading the way.

"In the last 2-weeks, Texas has been ahead of the country in terms of flu positivity," Sahly said. 

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During the COVID-19 pandemic we saw a major decline in flu cases because of all the safety measures that were in place, but now that those measures are non-existent the flu is back, but our immunity to it isn't the same.

 "We have children who are exposed to the virus as they grow that haven't been exposed in the last 3 years, so we've lost a bit of the immunity," Sahly said. 

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And with a harsh flu season already revving up this is a reminder that the flu can kill, especially the youth and the elderly just like COVID-19, and it'll be nearly impossible to distinguish between the two.

"The symptoms do overlap and there is no way of knowing without testing," Sahly said.

Also in addition to putting some of those hygiene and safety guidelines we learned during the pandemic into practice, health officials are urging people to get both the COVID-19 and the flu vaccine. Doctors say it is safe to receive both of those vaccines at the time.