The Ohio Health Department Director is providing numbers to back up reports that flu season is off to what he calls ‘a very strong start.’
Bruce Vanderhoff says there were 19-hundred hospitalizations statewide for the week ending January 3rd, up about 600 from the same time a year ago.
Vanderhoff says a new strain dubbed the “super-flu” is to blame and most Ohioans don’t have much protection against it. But he notes this new strain hasn’t developed any special ability to make people really sick, rather more people are coming down with the flu, so more people are proportionately ending up in the hospital.
Vanderhoff says this season’s flu vaccine is not a perfect match for preventing illness because of this new strain, but it still usually reduces someone’s severity of illness.
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