CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – People are talking around town about getting sick with some sort of respiratory illness, but it’s likely not flu, according to the chief of epidemiology at the University of Virginia Hospital.

“Right now, we’re tracking influenza-like illness which is sort of a measure of influenza activity, although other respiratory viruses could cause that and right now it’s relatively low nationally,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, UVA infectious disease specialist. “At the local level here at UVA, ILI or influenza-like illness, activity is also pretty low in places we proactively monitor.

“We are seeing some respiratory viruses, I’d say predominantly the cold virus rhinovirus, and we have seen some COVID-19 which does seem to percolate a little bit more in and out of respiratory season,” he said.

He said September and October are the times to get the flu vaccine, and other vaccinations like RSV if it’s recommended, and the COVID vaccine.

“And in the respiratory virus season, do the things we know work well to prevent getting infections in addition to staying current with vaccinations,” said Dr. Sifri. “That’s things like washing your hands well, covering your cough, staying home if you’re sick, and for certain people, and a lot of individuals, masking works well to prevent infection.”

Such measures are particularly important for high-risk groups like the elderly, young children, pregnant women, and those with chronic health conditions.

He emphasized masking particularly in crowded locations.

“Flu season usually starts in early October, peaks in the winter months, usually sometime between December and February, and then peters out in late spring, April to May,” Dr. Sifri said. “So, every flu season is a little bit different, but that’s the general pattern that we see.”

“During a reasonably busy flu season, I think there’s two options. Often it’s either, get the flu vaccine or get the flu,” said Sifri. “The flu vaccine’s not 100% effective, but if you really want to do the best that you can to get the most effective preventative measure that you can get, get the flu vaccine.”

Dr. Sifri described last year’s flu season as “pretty significant” with the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) counting 32-57-million cases of flu nationwide leading to around 80,000 deaths, with 19 of them children.

“It was driven in large part because of a new flu strain called H3N2 subclade K,” Dr. Sifri said.

“We found that last year’s vaccine still was effective at preventing flu at about 30%, 35%, and with a flu vaccine that’s a good match, that number is in the 50% to 55% range,” he said. “Even with somewhat of a mismatched vaccine, the complications of flu are less, the duration of illness are less, so there’s still benefit even if it’s not perfectly matched.”

He said we’ve seen in the Southern hemisphere, whose flu season is a bellwether for the season here, they’re seeing that same strain as last year and the vaccine has been updated to be more effective against it this year.

While it’s good when a vaccine prevents infection, Dr. Sifri said the primary objective is to reduce hospitalization and death.

Often, if the vaccination doesn’t prevent infection, he said it can reduce severity and duration of illness.

Symptoms of flu, according to Sifri, are a sudden onset of illness such as fever, body aches, chills, cough, and extreme fatigue.

Someone should get emergency help if they have trouble breathing or if there’s chest pain or pressure.

“In children, dehydration is a really concerning thing, particularly young children less than five years of age, so if, an infant is not urinating, that’s something to be contacting your pediatrician about,” he said.  “And then finally, symptoms that are just not improving or start to improve and then get worse again. Those can sometimes be a marker that something else is going on or there’s been a complication in the flu, for example, secondary bacterial pneumonia.”