TOLEDO, Ohio — Right now should be peak flu season. But much like the last two years, flu cases are at a minimum so far this year.
"There haven't been a great number of cases," said Dr. Brian Kaminski, vice president of quality and patient safety at ProMedica. "We haven't had a severe flu season like we have in the past."
This is good news because in the fall of 2021 public health officials were concerned we may be in for a severe flu season this year. More than that, many worried about combination cases of flu and coronavirus -- the so-called "flurona."
Dr. Kaminski said that while that combination was a major worry, officials are glad that flurona is not an issue in Ohio now.
Statewide, Ohio had 33 confirmed influenza hospitalization cases two weeks ago, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
At the same point in 2019, which was before COVID-19 precautions were put into place, Ohio had more than 900 flu hospitalizations.
Dr. Cathy Cantor, the chief medical officer at Mercy Health, said while the number of flu cases nationwide are lower than aver, hospitalizations are up. This may mean that flu strains circulating are relatively severe.
"Less people are getting the flu, but the people that are getting the flu are ending up hospitalized," she said. "So, I think it's one of those things we do not what to forget about."
Cantor said no two flu seasons are ever the same. That's why it is important to keep our guard up against both COVID-19 and the flu. And if one positive thing has come from the pandemic, it's all the precautions we've put in place.
"The education that we've kind of all received really bombarded with COVID has really opened our eyes to the other things that we can protect ourselves from," she said.
While there are far fewer flu cases than before the pandemic, Dr. Kaminski warned against complacency. Just as we've seen firsthand with COVID-19, you can never be too sure that another strain won't pop up.
"I don't want to be overly optimistic only because we're still in the flu season and we could see those cases start to surge again as people become more relaxed," Kaminski said.
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