Flu outbreak sickens 29 at Duval County assisted living facility

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Department of Health is investigating after 29 people tested positive for influenza type A at a Duval County assisted living facility.

Type A is the most common strain this flu season in Duval County and statewide.

The Department of Health won’t identify the facility because the investigation there is ongoing, but they said that 24 residents and 10 staff members there received the flu vaccine.

“Sometimes, you may get the infection if you have gotten the vaccine, but the disease is not going to be as severe,” said Dr. Mobeen Rathore, chief of infectious diseases and immunology at UF Health Jacksonville.

Rathore said it’s not too late to get the flu vaccine.

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Flu season is supposed to end in March, but there have been years in which Floridians have gotten the flu as late as June.

“I’ve had the flu twice in the month of February,” said Jacksonville teacher and actress Elizabeth Bricknell, who has been quarantined by her doctor since Sunday.

At the beginning of the month, she had influenza type B. On Sunday, she tested positive for influenza type A.

Bricknell skipped the vaccine this year, a mistake she said she won’t make again.

“Body aches, a fever that I just can’t get down, a cough -- it’s just -- I can’t breathe. I’ve got sinus pain,” said Bricknell.

This season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said only two out of five people nationwide have gotten the flu vaccine.

Rathore said if you start feeling symptoms, go to see a doctor and start treatment within the first 48 hours.

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Cox Media Group