The Sudbury and District Health Unit is reporting three cases of influenza B in this area.
Although we think influenza is more common - as common as the cold, it isn't, says Kelly Reilly, manager of clinic services at the health unit.
This is thanks, in no small part, to the flu shot.
The flu is a highly contagious acute viral disease of the respiratory tract. Symptoms include high fever, headache, sore throat, cough and muscle aches and pains.
Some people may also have mild gastrointestinal upset, but nasal and chest symptoms are more common.
Reilly says people confuse cold symptoms with the flu.
Unlike a cold, which people may have mild symptoms for several days before its onset, people generally feel ill with the flu "all of a sudden. At 6 pm you may feel fine, but at 9 pm you feel like you were hit with a bus," says Reilly. The other flu indicator is a high fever.
"Influenza is the most serious of a number of respiratory viruses that cause coughs, sniffles and fever each winter. However, most people who get the flu feel worse than they would with a simple cold. Even the young and healthy may take a week or more to recover."
She reminds people it is not too late to get a flu shot.
Influenza will usually stay in the community for 10 to 12 weeks. A flu shot administered now will take effect in 10 to 14 days.
People who are ill with influenza and other respiratory infections should stay at home to avoid inflecting others, especially the elderly. Frequent hand washing can also reduce the spread of influenza.
Health unit staff has administered more than 14,000 cases of influenza vaccine since Oct. 24.
Influenza has been a reportable disease in Ontario since 1923.
