“If you have symptoms, immediately seek medical attention. If you’re sick, do not expose others. Stay home. You want to make sure you completely convalesce until you go back out into the public. My instructions to my patients are usually bed rest, hydrate

exposure.

“When you get hit with the flu, you feel like you’ve been hit with a Mack truck,” Avetian said. That’s time to stay home.

He said people can be contagious one day before it develops and children can pass the virus up to seven days after it’s developed in them.

Avetian said he saw masks being distributed at a local doctor’s office.

The instructions were “if you have any signs or symptoms of the flu, put the mask on to protect everyone else,” he said.

Avetian posts updates of the situation on his Facebook page, “Dr. George Avetian, Delaware County Senior Medical Advisor.”

Dr. Dorothy A. Slavin, a CrozerKeystone infectious disease specialist, said getting a flu shot by October is the best way to be protected.

“However, there are additional ways to help prevent getting the flu,” she said. “The most obvious is to avoid contact with people who are already sick. It’s equally important to wash your hands frequently with soap and water, or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. And when coughing or sneezing, use a tissue to cover your mouth and nose, then throw the tissue away.”

The CDC said the flu can occur during any season but that it is most prevalent during the winter.

“Colder weather puts people into closer confines,” Avetian said. “When it’s like 2 degrees outside, I’m not going to go outside and play basketball with my son. (People are) sneezing and coughing and spreading germs and that’s what happens.”