For Your Health

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Feds confirm catastrophic flu outbreak is in at least 36 states – stay safe
January 2, 2018

Flu season got an early start this year.

Influenza has become widespread in 36 U.S. states, earlier than usual for the season which typically peaks in February. The CDC attributed the early start to poor efficacy of vaccines and unusually cold temperatures.

More than thirty deaths from the flu have occurred this season, which the CDC attributes to a strain that isn’t totally covered by last year’s vaccine. Epidemiologists say it’s too early to tell just how bad the season will be.

Early flu season
Epidemiologists reported widespread flu activity in 31 states to the CDC on Friday. 21 states had high flu activity and five moderate activity in the last week of 2017.

“It’s just one of those years where the CDC is seeing that this strain of flu is only somewhat covered by the vaccine that was given this year,” said Jennifer Radtke, manager for infection prevention at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

“They’re seeing that it’s anywhere from 10% to 33% effective, so any time there’s a mismatch between the vaccine and the circulating strain of the flu, you’re going to see more cases,” Radtke said.

The CDC released a map to show the states most affected. The 21 states with the highest activity last week were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Vaccine effectiveness varies from year to year. According to the CDC, risk of sickness drops about 4o to 60 percent among the overall population when a vaccine matches the strain well.

False negative results are common for flu tests, said Radtke, so it’s possible that the number of people affected is much higher. And many affected also don’t go to the hospital to get tested in the first place.

At least thirty people have been reported dead, including 12 children.

At least 11 people 65 and younger have died in California, while 12 and seven deaths have been reported in North Carolina and South Carolina, respectively. Three flu-related pediatric deaths occurred in the final week of 2017.

The culprit is strain H3N2, which experts say isn’t totally covered by last year’s flu vaccine. According to CDC data, between 12,00 and 56,000 people have died from the flu each year since 2010.Flu season got an early start this year.

https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/conservative-news/major-outbreak-36-states.htm