Tennessee children have died from the flu this season

For the week ending February 10, New Jersey reported high flu activity across the state. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Officials with the Department of Public Health report the number of flu-related deaths in El Paso now stands at eleven this season. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported an additional increase in the percentage (7.7%) of people seeing their health care provider with influenza-like-illness (ILI), the same percentage observed during the peak week of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

“The vaccine is not protecting well against H3N2”.

That’s better than initial reports from Australia and Canada had indicated. The populations are the most susceptible to contracting the flu, as well as pregnant women and women two weeks postpartum. That said, receiving the flu shot can reduce the severity of flu symptoms. Marshfield is one of five US sites measuring flu vaccine effectiveness.

She commented at the health department she has primarily seen influenza A (H3N2), Flu A, cases.

Lopez said the strain H3N2 of the flu has fatalities on the rise among children and the elderly. There are hundreds of viruses that can cause flu-like symptoms.

There were 4,619 flu cases reported in the entire 2016-2017 flu season in El Paso. Among the 54 whose vaccination status was known, 74 percent had not been vaccinated.

Since these targeted treatments are not yet available, Coates stresses that flu vaccination is crucial.

Pennsylvania reported that flu activity backed off slightly last week in much of the state, though visits to emergency departments for flu-like illnesses were still up sharply in Southeast Pennsylvania. That data will come later.

Influenza A (H3N2) viruses continue to predominate within the USA and CT although influenza A (H1N1) and influenza B viruses are also being reported.

So, asthmatics should consider getting a flu shot in addition to their monthly refills of Advair, Ventolin or other asthma-fighting pharmaceutical. There were 38% that tested positive for influenza, including 81% that tested positive for influenza A. Among the 1,340 influenza A viruses, 85% were H3N2, and 98% of B viruses were B/Yamagata.

“I wish that there were better news this week, but nearly everything we’re looking at is bad news”, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Specifically, Morse noted the strong case for applying these newer and more rapidly adaptable technologies to influenza vaccines, which need to be changed every few years.

And that has many people asking, “Why is it so deadly?”

The CDC said that the overall effectiveness of this year’s vaccine is 36 percent. So all the different vaccines on the market are lumped in together in vaccine effectiveness estimates.

“We have more research ongoing to make a better influenza vaccine than we’ve had in the previous 40 years put together”.

What that number means is that if you are vaccinated and you run into a flu virus, you have a 64 percent chance of getting sick.

“Some protection is better than no protection at all”.

“There is still time”.

Producing flu shots is a long, complex process.

The flu shot is only 25 percent effective against the most prevalent strain of the virus circulating during this season’s severe flu epidemic.

The CDC says that flu kills from 12,000 to 59,000 people every year.

“In a typical year, the flu doesn’t take on full steam in a major way until after the holidays”, said Dr. Jeffrey Jahre, St. Luke’s University Health Network’s chief of infectious diseases. “This is a great reason to get the flu shot early”. Officials said, “We continue to send our deepest condolences to the families who have lost a loved one due to influenza”.

Compounding the poor performing vaccine was an early start to flu season that coincided with the holidays, enabling travelers to spread the infection quickly across the country.