With cold weather, comes an increase in winter time illnesses.

Influenza, colds, RSV and Covid are the main illnesses that health officials are seeing right now, but those and any other illnesses can be classified into larger groups. Guthrie County Public Health Director Jotham Arbor tells Raccoon Valley Radio what the two main groups are, and how they’re treated.

“So if you have a virus, there are two types of treatment that you can do, okay? There’s antiviral treatment, but we’re probably not going to give you antiviral treatment unless you’re really bad and need that antiviral. And then there’s staying at home and hydrate because your body is going to take care of it, right? So that’s for viruses. For bacteria the treatment may include antibiotics.”

Arbor adds that another common cause for sickness that can be seen is parasites. He says that undercooked foods, or unsanitary preparation areas are the main cause of parasite related illnesses.