“I wouldn't wish it upon anyone!” or “I was off in Never-Never Land.”
-Kara Benson, recently afflicted with the flu

A splitting headache, the chills, exhaustion, dry cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and body ache. No, this is not an ad for NyQuil. These are common symptoms of the influenza virus, and those sneezes and coughs can be heard resonating around the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Peak flu season in Wisconsin is here. A campus-wide e-mail was sent out Friday, Feb. 23, from campus health officer and executive director of Norris Health Center Dr. Julie Bonner, informing students about the virus.

The e-mail describes ways to prevent getting sick, symptoms of the virus, and what to do if you experience flu-like symptoms. It mentions that getting the flu vaccine will help limit the spread of flu, and that UWM is continuing to offer flu shots in the fall for the campus community.

"Normally, the majority of shots are administered by the last week of February. If someone is interested in the shot I wouldn't tell them no, but they should be aware the shot takes two weeks to take effect and it will be late in the season by then," said Bonner. While the vaccine is mainly recommended for high-risk individuals, it has also recently been recommended for anyone who wants to reduce the likelihood of becoming ill with influenza or spreading influenza to others.

Anyone who wants to get the vaccine can do so. In past years, the vaccine had run out by this time, but that has not been a problem this year. According to the Center for Disease Control’s Web site, flu seasons are very unpredictable. Every season has a different strain of the virus.

Although epidemics of the flu happen yearly, the timing of the flu season and its severity depend on many factors, including which influenza viruses are circulating and how well viruses in the vaccine match circulating influenza viruses. The facts

From Feb. 10 through 16, influenza activity has continued to increase in the United States. Thirty-four percent of 2,340 specimens tested by U.S. World Health Organization and the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System laboratories were positive for influenza.

From September through early December, influenza activity was low in the United States. Cases of the virus increased from early December through the end of the year and have continued to increase in January and February. By the week ending Feb. 16, 2008, 49 states had reported widespread influenza activity, Wisconsin included.

According to Bonner, there were seven total positive diagnoses of influenza at Norris in February 2007. This February there have been only 6. However, in March of 2007 there were 32 total diagnosed cases. "We should be cautious in terms of predicting how this flu season will turn out compared to last year," said Bonner. "There really is no way of knowing." Influenza viruses are constantly changing, causing new strains of influenza viruses to appear each year. According to the CDC, this season in the U.S. an influenza virus named A/Brisbane/10/2007-like has been detected.

This strain first appeared in Australia a year ago and circulated in Europe and the southern hemisphere during the last flu season. The A/Brisbane/10/2007-like strain is related to, but a “drifted” variant of, the A/Wisconsin-like strain included in the 2007-08 vaccine. Most of the viruses circulating this season have been A/Brisbane. Firsthand experience

Kara Benson, a recent UWM graduate, experienced the flu firsthand. She started feeling sick on Saturday, Feb. 23. The sickness started with a lot of deep, hacking coughing. She thought it was from being in the bars the night before, but it got worse throughout the day. She suffered from all of the common symptoms “I woke up the next day feeling like I had been hit by a bus. My entire body hurt, my jaw even. I had a pounding headache, mostly in my sinus area. As the day went on, I became light-headed and dizzy. I was off in Never-Never Land,” said Benson.

Monday morning, she woke up with a fever of about 102. Symptoms slowly disappeared, and by Wednesday the 27, Benson said she felt that she was coming back to normal. Like many flu-sufferers, Benson didn’t seek medical attention, since she did not want any doctor bills. That means that she is not 100 percent sure she had a verified case. However, she did have final words about her experience.

“I wouldn't wish it upon anyone! Although many people have asked me if I got a flu shot this year, and my answer was no, I wouldn't get one in the future to prevent it. I have never gotten a flu shot in the past, and I have been just fine.”

More information about the influenza virus can be found at the CDC’s Web site, http://www.cdc.gov/.

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