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Health
Gracie Stockton and Cathy Wurzer

Second spike in flu hospitalizes hundreds of Minnesotans

Flu Season
A sign for flu vaccination is displayed outside of a grocery store in Glenview, Ill., Feb. 15, 2024.
Nam Y. Huh/AP

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Influenza is spiking in Minnesota for the second time this season, claiming at least 163 lives. 

Roughly one in three flu tests are coming back positive; just last week, 750 Minnesotans were ill enough to be hospitalized because of the virus. Minnesota Department of Health data show flu hospitalizations ranging from 747 to nearly 900 cases from Jan. 5 through Feb. 2. Hennepin Healthcare Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Stacene Maroushek attributes most infections to Influenza A.  

“Unfortunately, many people aren’t vaccinated. So it’s really been hitting us pretty hard,” Maroushek said.  

About seven in 10 Minnesotans have not gotten a flu shot this season, she said.  

“I think that people forget in, you know, October, November, in the midst of preparing for holidays, that it’s time to get the vaccine,” Maroushek explained. “I think some people feel natural disease is better, which we all know it isn’t. I also feel like sometimes they just, you know, get too busy and don’t have it on their agenda, because it’s not flu season.”  

Right now, young children – under the age of five – and the elderly are accounting for most flu hospitalizations.  

“We’re over 5,000 cases that have been hospitalized this year already, and in past, it’s only been 3-4,000,” Maroushek said.  

MDH reports more than 160 flu outbreaks in schools. If a child is showing symptoms, Maroushek recommends keeping them at home for at least 24 hours after their fever recedes without help from ibuprofen.  

“We know influenza is very contagious the first three to four days of the illness, but it also can be contagious for a day or two before you get symptoms, and for up to a week after your symptoms develop, so hopefully getting them to stay home during that peak infectious time when they’re actually febrile is the most important,” Maroushek said.  

It’s not too late to get a vaccine, though full protection takes about two weeks to set in. The immunization also protects against at least three different flu strains, not just Influenza A.