SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) -
So, this is where we are right now. The dollar remains weak, public confidence in the government wanes, personal security slips and the only thing that seems to get stronger in this country at the moment is the flu.
"We are seeing a lot of flu,'' said Dr. Colm Acuff, an emergency medicine physician at Memorial Health. "Seems like numbers are pretty high compared to previous years.''
And those numbers keep climbing depending on who's got it, who's getting it or who's giving it to someone else.
It's enough to make you sick, if you're not already, which you probably are, because everyone is. And it's already enough to make you say enough already, even though peak flu season often doesn't hit until the middle of February.
"Sometimes the height of the flu season is a little bit earlier than other years,'' said Dr. Acuff. "And it seems to me we could be at the height of it. That wouldn't surprise me.''
Let's hope so. You'd hate to think it will get worse than it has been so far.
One Pennsylvania hospital has constructed a tent in its parking lot to serve the overflow of flu patients. In Boston, they have declared a public health emergency. And here at home, you can't swing a clump of Spanish moss without hitting someone who feels like they've been hit by a bus.
"Muscle aches, fever and the fever's usually pretty high, about 102, 104,'' Dr. Acuff said of the common symptoms. "A sore throat's pretty common, a cough.''
All that good stuff, which seems to be getting the best of us this time around with a particularly nasty bug going around.
"The virus changes a little bit every year,'' said Dr. Acuff. "So it goes year to year and some years it's more severe than other years.''
So, 2013 is already a good year for the flu.
Makes you wonder what week three will bring.
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