ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As the school year winds down and children prepare to pack into summer camps, doctors across the Tampa Bay region are seeing a lot of sick kids.
By far, the biggest uptick is in the number of flu cases. It comes at a time when flu numbers usually go down, similar to 2021 when there was a delayed flu season.
"Our typical flu season peaks in December, January," said Dr. Juan Dumois, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Dumois said the hospital saw an increase in December when you expect the surge but the last few weeks show an alarming trend. In March, 15 children who came to the emergency room at the hospital tested positive for flu. In April, that number jumped to 180 cases, and so far in May, they've had 704 cases.
"That’s a huge, unprecedented increase for this time of the year," added Dumois.
According to the Florida Department of Health's weekly flu report, the Tampa Bay region is seeing an increase compared to the rest of the state. Pasco County is the only county in the state with five or more outbreaks over the last week.
While most counties are reporting mild activity, Pinellas is one of two counties reporting moderate flu activity and Polk alone is reporting elevated activity. When it comes to trends, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Hernando, and Sarasota are all reporting increasing flu activity.
No one knows the flu surge more than a mom home with her sick child.
Celeste Blanco, a first-grade teacher in Seminole had to call off of work Tuesday to care for her son, Corbin who's home with the flu.
She said on Monday she took the 6-year-old to the pediatrician after his fever spiked.
"That’s when they swabbed his nose and the doctor comes back in and says I can’t make this up but your son has flu A and B," said Blanco who did not get her son vaccinated against the flu this year.
"I usually do every single year and I’m not quite sure how that went, with COVID-19 scares and everything going on, we just skipped it," she said.
Blowing off the flu vaccine is another trend Dr. Dumois is tracking.
"Most of the kids who came in testing positive had not been vaccinated so that’s one thing I think the thought of vaccinating kids for flu has fallen to the wayside since much of the pandemic," he said.
Dr. Jill Roberts, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida recommended getting the flu shot if you haven't already, especially if you have very young children in your house.
While most kids who are hospitalized with the flu receive oxygen and get sent home feeling better, influenza is most dangerous for children younger than two, especially those younger than six months, children with asthma or other conditions that weaken the immune system.
Dr. Roberts also said it's time for people to wear a mask again.
"Influenza doesn’t spread anywhere near as easy as COVID-19 does so wearing a mask can prevent influenza," said Roberts, who credits the lack of flu in 2020 and early 2021 to all the mask-wearing and social distancing.
Masking could be a win-win for the flu and COVID right now, according to Roberts. He said COVID-19 cases are climbing and the Tampa Bay region. along with the country. is in the sixth wave of the pandemic.
"The official data shows a really clear picture. Cases are up. Hospitalizations are up. Case positivity, all those indicators are unfortunately up," said Roberts.