If you’ve been sick with a nasty respiratory virus in the past few weeks, or know someone who is, you’re not alone. In the last week of 2025, Kansas City saw its fourth-highest weekly total influenza cases in the past 15 years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this surge has not yet reached its peak and will continue for a few more weeks.
The surge has been dominated by a strain of the Influenza A type virus known as Subclade K, which medical professionals are calling a “super flu.”
Medical staff at the University of Kansas Health System recommend getting the flu vaccine if you haven’t yet, even though it is not an exact match to this variant.
According to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steve Stites, the influenza vaccine typically ffers about a 70% to 80% reduction in the chance of severe illness and hospitalization. For this strain, it offers about 50%.
“Vaccination still works. Maybe not quite as well, but it’s still one of your best lines of defense,” Stites said.
Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control Dr. Dana Hawkinson says vaccines are not meant to protect from infection, but to decrease the chances of the complications that come with the virus.
“The vaccine continues to do that, even though it’s not the best match this year,” Hawkinson said. “You will have that immune response there to help reduce the risk of those complications.”
Over the course of the 2024-2025 flu season, Kansas identified 182 deaths directly caused by the flu, and another 45 with influenza as a contributing factor. Missouri identified 408 deaths total with influenza as a direct or contributing cause during the last flu season.
Hawkinson says if you have not yet contracted the virus, you can still get the vaccine.
“It does take seven, 10, 14 days to mount that immune response, but we still have a long way to go in influenza season and other variants or other types can come through as well,” Hawkinson said.
To reduce the risk of infection, Hawkinson urges people frequently wash or sanitize their hands and wear a mask when in public. If possible, stay at home.
“We know that there are real-world problems, bills to pay, work to get to, school, all of those things,” said Hawkinson. “We’re just trying to give that message and the recommendations to help keep everybody in the households, especially those high-risk people, and our community safe.”
Dr. Sean Kumer, Chief Medical Officer of the Kansas City Division of the medical system, says hospitals in the metro are seeing more people check in with influenza and more staff come down with the flu, putting a strain on staff.
“There’s two sides to this. It’s about the patient and it’s about the people taking care of the patient,” said Kumer. “And that's what we're kind of working through right now.”
Kumer says medical staff are now wearing masks in the inpatient wards and in the clinic to protect the patients who aren’t yet infected, as well as the staff.
Despite the challenges hospitals are facing, Dr. Stites urges anyone who feels like they are getting sick to seek medical care.
“If you feel like that disease is beginning to get out of control, don’t sit at home. Get to your providers. Get to the emergency room,” Stites said. “Let people know that you’re having a problem and let us help get you into the right place.”
