Across the country, seasonal influenza activity continues to increase according to the weekly US Influenza Surveillance Report from the Centers for Disease Control. According to the report there is a 5.1 percent upward trend for positive influenza and a 3.4 percent upward trend for outpatient respiratory illness visits to health care providers.

Public Health Nurse Shelby Hill with Washington County Public Health says people can still get their annual flu vaccine, “It’s not too late to get your flu vaccine, and actually we’d still continue to encourage it.You can get your flu vaccine all the way up until March actually. So, now is a great time to be getting that. Once you get your flu vaccine it does take about two weeks to take full effect. So, sooner is better but it’s never too late to get that during flu season.” 

In Iowa, the influenza-like activity level is categorized as low for the week ending December 7th. And the Iowa Respiratory Survey for Influenza shows more positive cases for Flu A over Flu B.