According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States could be looking at another challenging flu season after there had been an increase in influenza-like-illness.
The CDC says to date, there have already been 11 pediatric deaths associated with the flu and an increase in hospital rates.
According to the recent December 21 FluView report:
- Influenza-like-illness (ILI) activity, which had hovered at or slightly above the national baseline of 2.2% for the previous three weeks, jumped to 2.7% nationally, with 8 out of 10 regions of the country at or above their regional ILI baselines. [Over the past 5 seasons, the peak of ILI has ranged from 3.6% (2015-2016) to 7.5% (2017-2018)].
- New York City and 11 states are experiencing high or moderate ILI activity.
- 24 states and Guam are reporting regional or widespread activity.
- The percent of respiratory specimens testing positive for flu at clinical laboratories increased from 6.5% during week 49 to 11.0% during week 50.
To date, influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses have predominated nationally; however, over the last three weeks influenza A(H3N2) viruses have been most common in the southeastern United States (HHS Region 4: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee).
The report also noted that most flu activity has been driven by illness in school-aged children, and hospitalization rates among children younger than 5 years old (7.7 per 100,000) are now the highest among all age groups. Usually adults 65 years and older have the highest hospitalization rates. For comparison purposes, the last two H1N1 predominant seasons were 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 and the hospitalization rates among children younger than 5 years old for the same week were 7.2 per 100,000 and 1.8 per 100,000 respectively. The hospitalization rate is cumulative and rises as a season progresses, and the proportions may change.
While how long a flu season lasts varies, CDC expects that elevated flu activity will continue for weeks. During the 2017-18 season, the CDC said influenza-like-illness activity began to increase in November and continued through March.
More information is available on the CDC Seasonal Influenza (Flu) website.
For more information on flu vaccination: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm
