When Aidan Ragan woke up on a Monday morning in late January with a tickle in his throat, he chalked it up to allergies. He felt well enough — until he didn't.
By Thursday, symptoms including chills, headaches and fatigue hindered him from attending classes. A trip to UF Health revealed Ragan had the flu, which would take him another week to fend off.
Ragan said the flu hit him out of nowhere, and fast. He experienced body chills, headaches and fatigue as the flu took its course through his body.
“It felt like it coated my entire body,” he said. “I felt like the flu was just like slime all over me.”
Ragan and over 200 other UF students fell victim to an influx of flu diagnoses from Jan. 13 to 26. The surge came amid a record-breaking cold weather spike last month, which forced people to stay indoors and made conditions optimal for the flu to spread.
Statewide, the percentage of people testing positive for the flu has hovered around 30% since mid-December. At UF, the figure was closer to 50% for the last half of January, according to UF Student Health Care Center figures.
Both the number of tests given and the number returned positive were higher at UF during that period than during the previous year. The UF Student Health Care Center administered nearly 50 more flu tests compared to last year, and the amount coming back positive jumped from 30% to 50%.
“This flu season is by far the worst flu season we've had in 10 years,” said Nicole Iovine, chief hospital epidemiologist at UF Health Shands Hospital. The flu is notorious for hitting people suddenly, Iovine said. Students will go to morning classes and feel fine, but symptoms can begin surfacing in the afternoon.
The Florida Department of Health has reported over 21,000 influenza and influenza-like cases statewide as of Feb. 1. That total includes all cases reported since the flu season’s reporting start date in late September. By February of last year, just 11,700 had been reported — nearly half this year’s total.
This season has also stood out in emergency room visits. In the first week of February, flu and flu-like illnesses made up a little less than 8% of discharge diagnoses at emergency room departments in Florida’s Region 2, the north central part of the state including Alachua County. The three-year average for that week was just around 2%, according to the Florida Flu Review published by the state’s department of health.
Florida saw 16 new outbreaks across multiple counties in the week of Jan. 26 alone. For the previous three years, the number of outbreaks in one week never exceeded seven throughout January.
Amanda Hiatt, a 21-year-old UF political science and women’s studies junior, got her flu shot Jan. 17. But by then, she’d already contracted the virus. She woke up the morning after her vaccination with a fever peaking at 103 degrees Fahrenheit that over-the-counter medicine couldn’t bring down.
Bogged down by other symptoms — including stomach aches, chills and coughing spells —, she slept through most of her battle with the virus, causing her to miss one week of classes and fall behind on coursework.
“It was probably the worst sickness of my life,” Hiatt said.
When 20-year-old UF marine science junior Finnigan Smith visited UF Health in hopes of alleviating symptoms including chills and a fever, the nurse helping him told him that every patient she’d seen that day had the flu. Even though Smith’s stint with the flu lasted just three days, he said it was the sickest he’d felt in two years.
“I was very foggy headed,” Smith said. “I felt like my head was dense.”
To avoid contracting and spreading the virus, Iovine encouraged getting flu shots, taking Tamiflu at the onset of symptoms, hand washing, avoiding touching your eyes and mouth and wearing a mask if you present symptoms.
UF Health offers flu shots and information about the vaccine. They also offer a guide on steps to take if you are infected with the flu.
Contact Sofia Meyers at smeyers@alligator.org. Follow her on X @SofiaMeyer84496
