Mary Washington Healthcare (MWHC) and Rappahannock Area Health District (RAHD) are seeing signs that the flu season may be worse than in recent years. More people are seeking care in emergency rooms and urgent care centers for influenza-like illness. RAHD has seen multiple outbreaks of confirmed and suspected influenza in schools and other settings across the district. Both MWHC and RAHD are urging residents to follow precautions to slow the spread of influenza and other respiratory illnesses.

“We have already seen large flu outbreaks locally, which is unusual this early in November,” said Olugbenga Obasanjo, MD, Health Director at RAHD. “The actions we were taking to protect against COVID-19 for the past two years also protected against the flu. Because of the low spread of flu for the last two years, people do not have the immunity built up to provide protection against the influenza virus, which is part of the reason we are already seeing increased flu activity this year.”