Christmas comes just as we are slipping into the big months for the flu. January and February are considered the main months of the flu season. But December is the month when things start to rev up. The state health department says Missouri already has had almost 300 cases of the flu, some of which have turned into pneumonia, with some of those cases turning into deaths.
Not to be a wet blanket, but should a person with the flu welcome Christmas guests to the home….or should someone with the flu go? Health department spokesman Brian Quinn says that’s a tough call.
"You kind of have to weigh the disappointment of maybe not getting with family against the risk of possibly spreading the flu or, if family members have it, of getting the flu," he says, "If you feel like you’re coming down with something it really would be best to stay at home and just not risk exposing others to the flu."
And here’s something else to think of. Quinn says stomach problems that we sometimes call the "stomach flu" aren’t the flu. They’re a different virus. Flu is a sudden onset of muscle aches, chills, fever, sometimes a hard cough. Those things are more likely than upset stomach.