BOSTON (WHDH) - Flu fears are at their highest right now, as the virus is peaking across the country.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said that the state could see flu cases into May, due to the current strain of the virus.
“It’s tough, patients are very sick,” Katie Murphy, and ICU nurse and president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu rates have reached the highest level in 15 years.
“It’s a little bit of a COVID vibe because the patients are all so similar, where they all have respiratory failure, they’re all on life support, and a lot of the medications are the same,” Murphy said.
Murphy, and other local nurses said hospitals are overwhelmed. According to states from the CDC, the number of hospital visits from the flu are more than double what they were this time last year.
So far this year, there have been 191 recorded flu deaths in Massachusetts.
Boston’s Public Health Commissioner Dr. Bisola Ojikutu said the number of flu cases has put a strain on local medical centers.
“There have been increases in emergency department visits and I think that it’s caused increased wait times in our emergency departments, and it has been a struggle for our hospitals to deal with,” Ojikutu said.
Murphy said she has seen an influx of sick patients.
“We are packed to capacity and patients really need our care and we need to have more staffed beds,” she said.
Health officials have said that, despite the high flu numbers, there are signs of relief.
“There is some optimism that it might actually be peaking now, so our hope is that it will get better over the coming weeks,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
However, that doesn’t mean cases won’t continue for months to come.
“We will probably continue to see flu cases well into April and even into May,” Ojikutu said.
About 40 percent of Massachusetts residents are vaccinated against the flu — which is below the national average. Boston is hosting vaccine clinics throughout the city.
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