South Carolina records first flu death of the season, DHEC reports

A Midlands resident is South Carolina’s first influenza-associated death of the flu season, the state’s Department of Health and Environment Control reported Friday.

“While we can’t predict what the upcoming flu season will bring, we, like other states, are preparing for significant flu activity this year,” state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said in a statement. “It’s critical that everyone get their flu shot now, at the start of the season, as we’re already seeing widespread circulation of the virus.”

Even though the flu circulates throughout the year, the flu season begins Oct. 1 as people begin congregating indoors more often as the temperatures drop.

In the first week of the flu season, South Carolina DHEC reported 788 lab-confirmed cases of the flu and 33 flu-related hospitalizations.

The health department also said the same preventative measures used to protect against the spread of COVID-19, such as vaccination, wearing masks, frequent handwashing and staying home or away from others while sick, also work with slowing the the flu’s spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people six months and older get the annual flu shot.

Young children, pregnant women, people 65 and older and those with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes or heart or lung disease are at increased risk of complications from the flu, DHEC said. However, healthy people also can have serious complications.

“We are concerned that there is the potential for a severe flu season in South Carolina and nationally based on what we’ve seen in the Southern Hemisphere,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s public health director. “Australia has just experienced one of its worst flu seasons in years, and that may mean that we, too, will experience a flu season that’s much more severe than what we’ve been accustomed to the last few years.”