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PHOENIX - As we head into the end of May, an unusual wave is hitting our state: a wave of flu cases. It is highly unusual to see numbers this high in late May.
"I had a fever … chills … I was achy," said a student. "Like a lot of people at our school were out for it."
A late round of flu? We talked to some north central Phoenix high schoolers who say it hit them about a week ago.
The number of flu cases in Arizona back up the rare occurrence of a double wave of flu in our state.
"It's not like it's a terrible influenza year. It's just unusual to see it come in two separate waves. Sort of we'll give you half today and half in a few months as opposed to giving it all to us in a single bolus around the holidays," said Will Humble of the Arizona Public Health Association.
Humble says you can't miss the trend on the graph showing Arizona's flu numbers – the double peak is obvious. He and others in the medical community agree this has to do with the pandemic and masking habits.
"I don't remember a time ever that we've seen such a huge number of cases in May. This is really unusual. And I chalk it up to dropping of the mask mandates. Particularly on airlines. That's the reason we're seeing this spread right now," said Dr. Andrew Carroll, a family physician.
"I would attribute that really to the fact that we were wearing masks during that big Omicron wave that has a suppressed effect on transmission of influenza. Over the winter, we took the masks off and now the virus has a new opportunity before summer comes to really infect a few more people," said Humble.
Dr. Carroll says flu cases are slowing down this week as COVID-19 cases are rising. He encourages getting tested and treated.
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