Flu

Friends, welcome back to the season of traveling armed against all viral bacteria threats, both seen, and especially, unseen. Masks? Hand Sanitizer? Kleenex? Many Iowans are checking all the boxes this season as a third straight vacation from a serious influenza season seems highly unlikely. As we bravely venture into an Iowa winter and a […]

Influenza has lost its fastball and lost much of its usual sickly bite on the United States of America. While the number of influenza cases rose nationwide after a quiet 2020-21 season, the flu failed to hit pre-pandemic levels this season, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Even better, the feared double […]

Just when we thought we had passed the peak of the Omicron COVID-19 wave, comes the latest, terrifying punch the coronavirus pandemic has thrown our way: Flurona. What exactly is Flurona? ‘Flurona’ is a term to describe a flu-COVID-19 coinfection. A handful of cases have surfaced in the United States, mostly among children and teenagers. […]

In the most dangerous cold and flu season of our lifetimes, the American public is, for now, keeping influenza at bay. In hopeful news amid the dark winter of COVID-19’s second deadly wave through America, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report influenza cases are surprisingly and refreshingly low. Through November, only 1.5% […]

As sure as water is wet, the Earth is round and the sun burns, we all know that getting a flu vaccine is our best defense against acquiring influenza during the cold and flu season. But during this devastating start to the 2019-20 flu season, too many Iowa parents and families are learning the hardest […]

Merciless and furious without remorse may be the best words to describe influenza’s coast-to-coast nationwide assault to open the 2019-2020 cold and flu season.  Influenza claimed 1,800 lives, caused 3.7 million flu illnesses and 32,000 hospitalizations through December 22. Thirty states are reporting widespread flu and influenza-like illness (ILI) have elevated for six straight weeks. […]

Experts Stress Coughing into Your Sleeve the Best Way To Prevent Colds and Flu From Spreading By Clete Campbell Who knew your elbow had bionic powers to stop the flu? From when we were kids, we’ve been taught to cover our mouth when we feel a sneeze or cough coming on. Covering your mouth, any […]

AAP recommends kids get vaccinated by Halloween Folks, don’t blame the messenger, but the shadow of the most miserable time of the year is closing in. Although it seems the flu season just ended, health officials are warning parents that another unpredictable influenza season is looming, and recommending families get vaccinated early in the season. […]

Our best defense against influenza needs better stopping power against the scariest name in the flu game: H3N2. That’s the unanimous verdict of health experts after the flu vaccine had another rough season fighting off the flu. The vaccine was incompletely ineffective against the powerful H3N2 strain that dominated the end of the 2018-19 flu […]

Productivity’s Public Enemy No. 1 will cost country 100 million lost work days, 32 million school days and $10.4B in hospitalizations this year Influenza is a freight train that breaks for no one, especially wallets. The high cost of the flu is as miserable as the sickly hurt its puts on millions of Americans each […]

Death, taxes and the flu. If there’s one certainty about Iowa winters, it’s that influenza is an ever-present threat we have to keep our guard up against, even during the mildest of Hawkeye State winters. But despite all the information available on the realities of the flu, there still many myths, old wive’s tales and […]

Influenza is in the air, lying in plain sight in all the coughs, sneezes and runny noses of our family members, coworkers, neighbors and friends. And after a quiet start, the 2018-19 flu season has turned fierce and deadly in Iowa as influenza settles like a bad storm over the Hawkeye State. However, how bad […]

The flu, as we all know too well, takes no mercy on its victims. And influenza is hardest on its most vulnerable targets: infants and toddlers. It’s a hard, cold, fact of life that your baby will get a cold at some point of this winter’s ruthless cold and flu season. After all, babies love […]

Experts urge ‘everyone’ to get vaccinated by Halloween as potentially nasty influenza weather looms Some events should never be green lit for a sequel, namely, the 2017-18 U.S. cold and flu season. One of the worst seasons in recent memory produced epidemic levels of influenza or pneumonia for 16 consecutive weeks, hospitalized more than 700,000 […]

WHO and FDA strengthen vaccine for 2018-19 season to target season’s No. 1 threat: H3N2 Even a flu vaccine can get the flu. Overwhelmed by an unexpected surge by H3N2 strains, the flu shot wasn’t itself last season. With the disturbing numbers on the 2017-18 cold and flu season in front of them, the World […]

Secondary Strains Fueling Influenza’s Dangerous Late-Season Resurgence By Clete Campbell Of course, in this miserable 2017-18 flu season, influenza has a Plan B. After attacking Americans without remorse for months with a sickly, too often deadly assault of A Strains viruses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls report that B strains of influenza are fueling […]

Dependable Home Cleaning Agents Can Keep Your Family Safe During Season’s Dog Days Harder to eliminate than a No. 1 seed in the NCAA basketball tournament, harder to kill than a villain in a horror movie franchise, and infamous for hanging around the house longer than even the most annoying fly, the flu virus can […]

The vicious winter lion known as the 2017-18 cold and flu season is claiming victims by the day as Americans struggle to stay on their feet, at work and breathing easy. What NBC News is calling “the worst flu season in a decade” has already resulted in thousands of hospitalizations, hundreds of deaths, and widespread […]

The intense, remorseless, relentless and certified severe 2017-18 cold and flu season hasn’t even reached halftime, but health officials are already issuing a coast-to-coast Influenza Red Alert. With flu outbreaks already reported in 46 of 50 states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention are advising Americans to be extremely cautious to protect themselves […]

Experts: Flu Could Roar With Sickly Wrath This Season The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has issued a jarring warning for Americans coast to coast: Expect influenza to roar with a sickly might this cold and flu season. Unfortunately, influenza’s miserable resurgence is due in part to factors beyond everyone’s control. Severe weather, including the […]

The most worrisome and important words for the upcoming 2017-18 influenza season continue to be H1N1, H3N2 and B Victoria. With research, trends and statistics pointing to these three flu strains being the most prevalent and contagious in the United States and North American, the World Health Organization has designed its 2017-18 flu vaccine to […]