But, I can honestly say that our number of absentees has definitely doubled this week. We definitely have some kind of epidemic here. For the most part, it s a virus, reported Dr. Heidi Gunn of the Family Medical Center in Little Falls. Of course, there are many viruses. What is mainly going around currently is a cold virus.
Symptoms can include a fever, sore throat, cough, and nasal congestion.
Antibiotics won t help relieve it. Those who get it are advised to use what we call supportive care. That is, get rest, drink a lot of fluids and take decongestants. Of course, sometimes people get run down and their condition can get worse. That is, they can get a secondary infection like pneumonia, an ear infection or a sinus infection.