The Southern Nevada Health District is reporting some concerning news this flu season: two more people died this week, bringing the total death count to 3.
Local health experts say those numbers could get even higher.
“When I heard our death toll is already at three, this is really concerning,” said local Doctor Daliah Wachs.
She says the numbers speak for themselves. Compare this week of the flu season to last year. According to SNHD, in 2018, we saw one death locally and 24 influenza-related hospitalizations. That’s now up to three deaths and over 100 hospitalizations for 2019.
“This is going to be a more severe flu season than what we’ve had in the past,” said Wachs.
And this week, it could get worse.
“Thanksgiving is kind of the start when things start getting rough,” said Wachs. “The weather changes–it gets really cold around here. We’ve actually had a wetter, colder winter start a little earlier than it did last year.”
She says the weather, and the traveling during the holiday season can create a flu hot-bed.
“The holidays are wonderful and merry, but unfortunately this really begins to incite a lot of this flu activity,” she said.
Nationally, doctors predicted this flu season would be an aggressive one, based on Australia’s past season. And locally, experts say this season will be ‘more severe than normal’.
We’ve also seen one group hit harder—all three of the recent Clark County deaths have been seniors 65 or older.
This article appeared in Channel 3 News, Las Vegas. Read the full story here.