FLU season isn’t over just yet, but it’s winding down and will go in the books as a relatively mild one, US health officials say.
Lynette Brammer, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) influenza division, cited three main reasons for the gentler flu season: there were no new viruses this year, so many individuals were immune because they had been vaccinated before; the vaccine this year was a fitting match for circulating viruses; and there was less flu out there overall.
On average, flu season sends more than 200,000 Americans to the hospital.
This year, 40 children were recorded to have died from flu complications thus far, Brammer said, according to United Press International. On average, depending on the severity of a flu season, between 40 to 300 deaths among babies occur per year. Numbers for the total number of people who have come down with the flu and been hospitalized are not yet available. However, last year, an estimated 40 million Americans fell ill to the infection, 1 million were hospitalized and 148 children died, the CDC reported. Last year’s flu season was also particularly hard on people aged 65 and older, officials said.
CDC officials said that the vaccine this year proved to be nearly 60 percent effective against circulating viruses, much better than the 23 percent rate for the last year’s vaccine, which did not contain the most common circulating virus – the H3N2 strain.
“This means that getting a flu vaccine this season reduced the risk of having to go to the doctor because of flu by nearly 60 percent,” Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the CDC’s epidemiology and prevention branch, said in a statement. “It’s good news and underscores the importance and the benefit of both annual and ongoing vaccination efforts this season.”
Although flu season is nearing its end, Brammer advises people who haven’t yet gotten a flu shot to do so.
“At this point there is still a benefit, but not as much as if they had been vaccinated earlier,” she said.
