It’s common knowledge in the medical community that viruses like the flu mutate and adapt to maneuver around the latest immunizations. In fact, that’s the reason we have to get flu shots every year – because the strains of the flu we were immunized against in prior years have evolved and require us to develop new vaccines for them.
But even as ingenious as mutation is, it may not be as tricky as what the flu did over the past several months in North Texas. You see, the typical peak of the flu season is in January and February here. But not this year. North Texas had an extremely mild amount of flu cases in the first couple of months of 2012.
That lulled most of us into thinking that we were just going to have a flu-less year. However, as you’ll learn from our infectious disease expert Dr. Jeffrey Kahn in the WFAA news clip below, the flu just faked us out. There has been a significant increase in flu cases over the last several weeks, which implies that we’re just now entering the throes of “flu season.”
So, if you haven’t had your child vaccinated against the flu yet, it’s still a good idea.
