Flu season is wretched, but it’s not the worst
A fierce flu season that started early seems to be hitting almost every corner of the country and sowing anxiety nationwide. The epidemic is far fromover and may be among the worst in several years, health officials said.
But an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not indicate an epidemic of historic or rare proportions — just one that could approach the severity of the most recent moderately severe season, in 2014- 15.
The flu is always dangerous, causing 9 million to 35 million illnesses, 140,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations and12,000 to 56,000 deaths in the USA in a typical year, the CDC says.
In a very atypical year, exactly 100 years ago, the USA saw the first waves of the worst modern flu pandemic, one that killed about 675,000 Americans. Here’s what you need to know:
Question: Is there anything unusual about this year’s flu pattern?
Answer: CDC officials said flu season started early, in November. In late December and early January, the epidemic appeared to strike almost everywhere in the country at the same time— giving the agency’s flu map an unusually uniform look.
The illness remained “widespread” in 49 states and Puerto Rico ( but not Washington, D. C., Hawaii or Guam), as of Jan. 13. Geographic spread is not ameasure of severity, but most states were seeing moderate to high flu activity and reports of flu- like illnesses were rising nationwide, dashing hopes the epidemic had peaked.
“It’s a robust flu season,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
Q: Is there anything unusual about this year’s flu virus?
A: The most common flu strain this year is a type of influenza A called H3N2. It’s been around for decades, but doctors dread seasons in which it dominates because it tends to cause worse illnesses in vulnerable groups, including people over age 65 and children.
Flu vaccines tend to be less effective against H3N2 than against other flu viruses. Health officials said the vaccine should be about30% effective.
Q: Who is most at risk?
A: Hospitalization rates for flu this season are, as usual, highest among people over age 65, the CDC reported. The next hardest- hit groups are adults ages 50 to 64 and children under age 4. Many of those hospitalized have underlying conditions — heart disease, respiratory problems and obesity are reported in many sick adults.
Cases in which perfectly healthy young adults died get a lot of publicity, but are much rarer.
Q: Have there been an unusual number of child flu deaths?
A: No. The CDC tracks child deaths as one way of gauging a flu season’s severity.
This year, 30child deaths— including 10 in the second week of January — have been reported. Though tragic, that count is not out of line with early reports from previous years. Final counts were 148 in 2014- 15; 92 in 201516; and110 in 2016- 17.