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UAB Doctor: Winter Storm Likely Helped Slow Fierce Flu’s Spread

| January 19, 2018 @ 5:00 am

By Donna Cope

The nation is facing one of its worst flu epidemics in years, but Alabama residents may enjoy a small respite from the flu, thanks to three relatively travel-free days this week.

The Martin Luther King holiday on Jan. 15, followed by two or three snow days, likely prevented more flu cases, said Dr. Bernard Camins, an epidemiologist at UAB Hospital. The weekend should offer a small break, as well.

“Those days off helped because people stopped congregating and spreading the flu,” Camins said. “The 2018 flu season is the worst year I’ve ever seen in a hospital. We have had to cancel elective surgeries because the hospital was entirely full. We’ve had a big influx of flu patients being admitted, and we’ve activated our emergency response center.”It’s no secret, Camins said, that travel – or the lack thereof – affects the spread of disease. Hospital emergency rooms continue to fill up across the country as people battle flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) theorizes that flu worsened in the Southeast in December and the weeks following as people traveled to and fro for the holidays.

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