(upbeat music)
- Welcome back, so it's the dreaded cold and flu season.
So let's play offense and not defense
when it comes to staying healthy.
Dr. Rachel Hailey from HCA Midwest Health is here
with tips on keeping your family healthy.
Now we've got a lot to talk about today,
including some kind of alarming flu statistics.
How is that impacting Kansas City?
- This season is crazy.
We're seeing dramatic spikes of the flu
on both the Kansas and Missouri sides.
- That's bad news for us. - It is.
You know, our nine urgent care CareNow clinics
have recorded 1200 cases of the flu since December 1st.
- [Belinda] And is that a lot in comparison to other years?
- Well, yeah, we've recorded 50% more flu and flu-like
illness diagnoses in December of 2019
compared to December of 2018,
and this doesn't include all the people
that are going to our 11 ERs throughout the region.
The CDC just released their weekly updated stats
and every week they're climbing
so now 15 million people are estimated
to have had the flu. - Oh my gosh.
- 150,000 have been hospitalized, and over 8,000 have died
and that includes 54 pediatric deaths.
So the key to remember is this is not benign.
It can kill, and even healthy people can get the flu.
- And that's something to really take into perspective.
And even if it isn't that dramatic of a case,
like something that's more symptomatic
that we see around here,
nobody likes waking up with those aches
and that fever and something like that.
- Absolutely, and it's all about protecting other people,
not just ourselves, healthy people can usually do well,
but it's the people of extreme ages, our young ones
our older ones or pregnant women,
so those are also the people we want to protect.
- Okay, now big question here, I got my flu shot,
but maybe for someone who has not gotten it,
is it too late to get it, and how can we go about that?
- Absolutely not, you know, getting the flu shot
for everyone in the family can greatly reduce
your risk of getting the flu
and lessen the impact if you do get the flu.
We recommend that children six months of age and older
and those-- - Even the little ones.
- Even the little ones, even those
in high-risk medical groups including those
over the age of 65, pregnant women,
people with chronic medical diseases like heart disease,
kidney disease, asthma and diabetes get the flu shot.
- Okay, and what are some of the symptoms
we should look for, then bridging onto that,
if we're seeing kind of advanced signs of this,
when should we call the doctor or go to the ER?
- Great question, one of biggest things I hear over
and over, it feels like they've been hit by a mack truck.
It's extreme fatigue. - No one likes that.
- And body aches, you can also have the cough,
the congestion, the runny nose, headache,
sore throat, the body aches, chills and fatigue.
- Okay, on prevention, we've already talked
about the flu shot, of course, a very important one
and we encourage people to do that,
but what are some other prevention methods we could take?
- I can't talk about this or emphasize it enough.
Sanitize everything, your hands, door knobs, cell phones,
other computer devices, the grocery cart handrails,
any place where the flu virus or other respiratory viruses
can survive up to three days.
- Three days, we'd better have those wipes ready.
- Wipe everything, and common sense.
Cover your cough with your arm or your sleeve,
whether you're at home or in public.
Teach your kids to wash their hands, you wash your hands,
and stay home, keep your kids at home, don't go to work,
don't expose others because this is rapidly spreading.
- Right, I hear you there.
Now what do we need to know about the deadly coronavirus,
because we just saw this on the news
after the Grammys last night here on KCTV5.
what do we need to know?
- So we are monitoring this every hour
with HCA Health Midwest.
And especially with the fifth case
of this deadly novel coronavirus
being identified in the US already.
We know that the numbers are rising in China
where it's originated.
2,700 people have been infected.
Their death toll has risen to 80.
We are still learning a lot about this coronavirus.
The coronavirus is actually a family of many viruses.
- Oh, that is not what we want to hear.
- Well, and some are as mild as the common cold,
but some are as severe as the SARS outbreak
that happened in 2003.
So we're watching, we're learning.
Symptoms can vary, some people can have
as little or no symptoms.
You can have the common cold symptoms
with a runny nose, headaches, sore throat,
but the key features we're looking for
are shortness of breath, fever and cough.
Again there's no vaccine available.
It's supportive care,
and really it's common sense right now.
The flu is more prevalent right now in the US.
But the same precautions are what we're using
to prevent spread.
If you're traveling for the Super Bowl,
just be aware, look for signs and symptoms,
and wash your hands, use the hand sanitizer.
- Keep the sanitizing wipes. - Everywhere, yes.
- Dr. Rachel Hailey, thank you so much for all those tips.
And for more information, you can actually
head over to hcamidwest.com.