If you feel like everyone around you is getting sick, it’s because they are. Flu season is in full effect in Kansas City and all around Missouri.
The influenza-like illness tracker on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’s website places Missouri in the “very high” category, and it’s just two levels below the highest level on the tracker, according to the most recent data collection for the week ending Feb. 8. Kansas is at the highest level on the tracker.
The influenza season kicked off Oct. 8 and will run through May, and the Missouri Department of Health has reported more than 70,000 cases and 97 deaths of the illness since. In week 6 of the season, which was Feb. 2-8, the health department said it had a total number of 14,272 influenza cases reported.
Of the 70,000 cases, 67,000 were Influenza A, and 3,000 were Influenza B. While you’re more likely to get one illness over the other, both can be dangerous, since the contagious respiratory illness can hospitalize and kill people in extreme circumstances…