Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Flu Season in San Diego is Mild

San Diego is deep into flu season. But this year it's not so bad. KPBS Reporter Tom Fudge has more.

Flu Season in San Diego is Mild

San Diego is deep into flu season. But this year it's not so bad. KPBS Reporter Tom Fudge has more.

Seasonal influenza is a potentially deadly virus that arrives in San Diego every year. The good news is that this year's flu is more like a lamb than a lion. Wilma Wooten is the public health officer for San Diego county. She says local emergency rooms are seeing an unusually small number of cases.

Advertisement

Wooten: We still have some time left and we could see a peak. But so far influenza-like illnesses only account for two to three percent of all visits to the emergency department. So this is probabaly the lightest flu season we've had in almost the last ten years.

And that's a good thing because the flu virus, this year, has turned out to be very resistant to Tamiflu, the most commonly-used anti-flu medication. Tom Fudge, KPBS News.