Deadly flu peak passes, but late bump looms

The worst of the flu season is over, but increasing numbers of people are being infected by a secondary strain of the respiratory virus that could lead to a lateseason bump, according to a federal health report released Friday.

The number of people going to the doctor with symptoms of the flu has continued to decline. Deaths from the flu or pneumonia are going down, too.

Still, public health officials have said this flu season is likely to continue until mid-April, and the intensity of illness has made it the worst since the swine flu pandemic of 2009-2010. An additional 17 child deaths were reported across the country for the week ending Feb. 24. That brings the total to at least 114 for the 2017-2018 season.

The percentage of doctor visits for flu symptoms dropped for a second week in a row, according to the latest indicators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 5 percent of all doctor visits were for fever, cough and other symptoms — down from 6.4 percent the previous week. But flu activity is still high and widespread nationwide.

“[Friday’s] flu data show activity is down significantly for the second consecutive week, which means we peaked in early February,” said CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund. “However, this is about the same level of influenza-like-illness that we saw at the peak of last season, so there is still a lot of flu out there.”

This season of misery, fevers, muscle aches and overwhelming fatigue has been especially severe because of the predominant flu strain circulating— an influenza A virus known as H3N2, the most deadly of the two influenzaA viruses and two types of influenza B viruses that are responsible for seasonal fluepidemics each year.

H3N2 is associated with more complications, hospitalizations and deaths, especially among children, people older than 65 and those with certain chronic conditions. In a very bad flu season, such as this one, the CDC estimates that influenza results in as many as 35 million illnesses, about 700,000 hospitalizations, and up to 56,000 deaths in the United States.