Haley Swaino
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Flu activity is up across Missouri, according to the latest numbers released Friday by state officials.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services in its weekly flu update Friday reported flu activity at moderate levels.
Missouri reported 5,414 cases in the week that ended Jan. 25, according to the department. The state noted that most cases were from influenza A.
Health care providers were seeing increased cases of influenza and respiratory viruses last week, according to previous reporting.
Boone Health Emergency Department Manager Nick Woods said the hospital continues to see a rise in cases each month.
“We saw about 40 patients through our emergency department with flu symptoms [in November],” Woods said. “That jumped, almost doubled to about 70, 80. And this month, there were over 100 cases already.”
Woods said this flu season is worse than last years, but not the worst he’s ever seen.
“I think it was 2018 or 2017 when we had that really huge influx,” Woods said. “And years before that we had the swine flu outbreak. That was major as well.”
He said if flu season has not peaked yet, he would assume the amount of cases will crest soon.
“I think we’re getting to that point just from what we’ve seen,” Woods said.
Woods said there are many factors that can contribute to the height of flu season.
“The [flu] season starts around late September, early October time when kids get back to school and college and that sort of thing. And then you have the holidays. So people were confined and around others from out of town, out of state.”
Flu-like symptoms have affected school-aged children in Camden County considerably, causing at least one district to shut its doors.
Increased illness in students caused the Climax Springs School District to use an AMI day Friday.
Superintendent Joshua Griffith said the decision was made because of low attendance.
“Pretty much all week, we’ve hovered around the 70% in attendance mark,” Griffith said. “So Tuesday, Wednesday, we wanted to see what the numbers were going to do. They didn’t get any better.”
He said when he met with his administrative team Thursday, they decided using an AMI day was the best decision.
“So parents didn’t feel pressure that they had to send them,” Griffith said. “We thought it was really in the best interest of everybody to use AMI day number four just to come back with a fresh start and hopefully get our attendance back up in the nineties where it’s normally at.”
Besides low attendance, he said students were coming to school sick.
“We had a lot of kids that were kind of teetering on the low-grade fever,” Griffith said. “Not high enough to send them home, but they weren’t feeling very good. Those numbers were coming in to the nurse pretty much every day.”
This is Griffith’s fourth year in the district and he said student sickness was not this high last year.
Maintenance teams are spending Friday deep cleaning Climax Springs Schools.
“They’re going through each room, wiping down all surfaces, wiping down all doorknobs, anything that would be something that students would touch or be a part of,” Griffith said. “We’re cleaning and sanitizing the floors and the doors, and we’re going to hopefully have everything wiped down today.”
Griffith said he hopes school will be back in session on Tuesday. Climax Springs students go to school four days a week.
Woods said the best way to protect against influenza-like illnesses is through prevention.
“Of course we’re a little late in the game for that,” Woods said. “But getting your annual flu shots is a big help. Then if you’re just not feeling well, please, please don’t go to work sick and spread to your coworkers.”
He also said to wear a mask and wash your hands often when feeling sick, and avoid large settings like grocery stores and sporting games to help prevent spreading illness. He said anyone can get the flu.
“The other day we had a case of an infant, about one month old,” Woods said. “We see it all the way up to elderly folks.”
