Flu season may be levelling off

This nasty flu season, which has been worsening for months, may finally be levelling off.

Health officials on Friday said about one of every 13 visits to the doctor last week was for fever, cough and other symptoms of the flu. That’s no reason for health officials to celebrate yet: That level is among the highest in a decade. But it’s no worse than last week, and flu activity had been increasing each week since November.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said the number of states reporting heavy flu patient traffic also held steady at 43.

“I thought I was going to die, I really did,” said Ben Bland, a 39-year-old event planner in Kansas City, Missouri, who was hospitalized last week with pneumonia on top of flu. “My lungs felt like they were going to blow out of my esophagus every time I coughed. My body ached head to toe.”

This season started early and has been driven by a formidable type of flu that tends to put more people in the hospital and cause more deaths. Making a bad year worse, this year’s flu vaccine is estimated to be only 25 per cent effective against that type.

Preliminary data released last week indicated patient traffic in doctor’s offices and emergency rooms this flu season was as bad as the height of the swine flu pandemic in 2009. However, the CDC readjusted its numbers down slightly in Friday’s report, meaning this season did not quite match the intensity of flu activity seen in October 2009.

Still, it counts as one of the most intense flu seasons in more than a decade. Whether it’s peaking or not, flu season is still expected to last several more weeks.

“We are not out of the woods yet. We are not seeing any increase, and that is encouraging. But there still is a lot of flu happening out there,” said Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the CDC’s influenza chief. He said people should stay home from work or school if they get sick to prevent spreading flu, and people should still get vaccinated if they haven’t already. Even though the vaccine is not as powerful as officials hoped, it can lessen the illness’s severity, keep people out of the hospital, and save lives.

Flu remained widespread in every state except Oregon and Hawaii, the same as the week before.

The new report shows that for the week ending Jan. 27, just under 10 per cent of U.S. death certificates listed flu or pneumonia.