Most people can ride it out.

The fever, the cough, the sore throat, the runny nose, the body aches.

It takes a lot to wind up in the hospital from it.

Yet in one of the worse outbreaks of the flue= in two decades, more than 4,500 New Yorkers are in hospital beds this week — 1,000 more than last week — because of the flu.

If you’re not taking it seriously by taking precautions, getting the vaccine and being especially careful keep your hands and surfaces in your home clean, you could wind up being one of them.

The flu can quickly escalate from discomfort to misery to life-threatening, especially in older people and children, and people with pre-existing........

© The Leader Herald