MADISON, Delete. – As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the United States, the country is feeling relief from another popular respiratory disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local doctors describe this flu season as unusually mild.
“This one doesn’t feel like a flu season at all,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, Medical Director of Infection Control at UW Health. “Usually it starts around November, December it takes a few weeks or it lasts well into February or March.”
UW Health has treated one patient for the flu so far during the 2020/2021 flu season. In the 2019/2020 season, they had treated 971 patients and 149 patients the previous season by then.
.@UWHealth treated one patient for the flu this year. BUT ONE. Doctors say the steps we take to protect ourselves from COVID-19 also help protect us from other respiratory illnesses. # News3Now pic.twitter.com/032AW0mFJw
– Gabriella Bachara (@GabbyBachara) February 6, 2021
“Some seasons are better than others, but one in which we have barely fallen, I don’t recall in recent memory,” said Safdar.
A map from the CDC shows that both the state of Wisconsin and the country have minimal flu activity.
“Historically, almost unprecedented,” said UW-Madison medical history professor Richard Keller.
Both Safdar and Keller say there are many contributors to this mild season, the most obvious being COVID-19 precautions.
“Masking, hand hygiene, not attending large gatherings, all of those things help limit flu transmission,” Safdar said.
Less international travel and less testing are also possible causes of the low case numbers.
It’s too difficult to say whether people will choose to put on a mask during future seasons of respiratory infections.
“People tend to think of flu as a fairly mild, bothersome illness, rather than the killer it sure can be,” said Keller.
If anyone thinks that Safdar hopes people will take away the pandemic, it recognizes that when people are sick they should stay at home.
‘You shouldn’t go to school. You shouldn’t go to work, ”said Safdar. “That was always the recommendation, but it was enforced varyingly and many people did not necessarily follow it.”
The only downside to a mild flu season is that it can be difficult to predict which strain will be popular next year, and it affects vaccine planning, Keller said.
COPYRIGHT 2021 PER CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWrite, OR REDISTRIBUTED.