GRANGER — Flu season is here and some local doctors say they're seeing dozens of cases.

After a mild January, the St. Joseph County Health Department saw the number of cases triple in just the past week.

If you’ve gotten the flu, you know it hits you like a truck.

“What we've been seeing in the last week, week in a half, are just dozens and dozens of people coming in through our offices with the symptoms of the flu,” said Dr. Jesse Hsieh of Granger Family Medicine.

Symptoms include sore throats, coughing, fevers and muscle aches.

Hsieh says Granger Family Medicine saw about 3 dozen patients on Monday to test for the flu, and his practice is ordering more tests by the case.

“Studies have shown that when it hits a city our size, it takes about six weeks and it goes through the entire city. Everybody will get exposed,” Hsieh explained.

On the Centers for Disease Control's website, Indiana and Michigan are both listed with "regional" influenza activity. To see the CDC's map of influenza activity, click on the link in the Related Content box.

But Dr. Steven Spilger of Memorial Hospital says most of the cases he sees are milder thanks to people getting the flu vaccine.

Plus, that's not all you can do.

“Hand-washing is the best thing you can do to not get viral illnesses because that's how viral illnesses are most spread. If you have contact with a lot of people — hands to hands, talk, go to meetings and shake 30 people's hands — someone's got a virus,” explained Spilger.

It's not too late to get the flu shot. There's also anti-viral drugs used to treat influenza.

The Elkhart County Health Department says they're just starting to see the flu, and health officials in Southwest Michigan say they too are being hit.