MOSES LAKE — Flu season has arrived. And the Grant County Health District wants to remind everyone that influenza, which for most people is an unpleasant inconvenience, can kill.

According to Grant County Health Officer Alexander Brzezny, this year’s flu season is shaping up to be a difficult one.

In fact, according to the health district, five people have died as a result of the flu in Washington state this fall. None of those deaths were reported in Grant County.

“Seasonal flu has taken off,” he said during a meeting of the Grand County Board of Health last week. “One percent of all visits to the doctor right now are flu-related.”

According to Brzezny, the flu season in Australia’s winter — our summer — resulted in the reporting of five times the number of influenza cases, with many cases involving a flue virus strain not covered by the current flu vaccine.

Despite that, health officials are encouraging everyone aged 6 months and older to get a flu vaccine as soon as possible.

“Flu activity typically increases in the winter months when people spend more time indoors around each other,” the health district statement said.

Those most at risk for the flu are people with asthma, diabetes, chronic lung disease, heart disease, infants, the elderly, and pregnant women. People with the flu can make others sick one day before symptoms are visible, and the health district advises that anyone who comes down with “a flu-like sickness” to stay home until a day after the fever passes.

For information on vaccination availability and places to receive the flu vaccine, call the Family Health Hotline at 1-800-322-2588 or the Grant Count Health District at 509-766-7960.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.