Flu season is picking up steam just in time to ruin a lot of people’s holidays. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports widespread flu activity in 29 states, primarily in the South and Midwest. That’s twice as many states as the previous week.
Most of the patients who have been hospitalized with severe cases of the flu are either very young or the very old. In recent days flu outbreaks have forced schools in Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina to close.
So far this season, the virus has killed 11 children.
Describing the pattern of this year’s outbreak, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told CBS News, “There’s almost like a Christmas tree right in the middle of the country of the hot spots for disease.”
Thirteen states reported high levels of influenza-like illnesses, while another six states saw moderate activity.
Health experts say part of the problem is that this year’s vaccine doesn’t provide protection for H3N2, the strain of the influenza that’s currently making the rounds. This year’s vaccine does help protect against H1N1 and one or two strains of influenza B.
Earlier this month the CDC issued a health advisory stating that only 48 percent of flu virus samples taken through last month were closely related to this year’s vaccine.
“Because the H3N2 is dominating, we probably will see more disease,” said Schuchat. “There might be reduced protection as opposed to zero protection,” she said.
Read more at CBS NEWS.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
