“We are now in the midst of a very active flu season with much of the country experiencing widespread and intense flu activity”, CDC director Brenda Fitzgerald shared with reporters.
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To date, Canada has reported 34 influenza-related deaths this year, with eight to 10 weeks left to go in the season. Health officials reported their findings in a Thursday morning phone conference.
The death in eastern Iowa was identified as a male over the age of 81 years old.
“Flu is widespread and elevated in LA County”, said Dr. Sharon Balter, director of Acute Communicable Disease Control. And the Washington Post shared the story of Kyler Baughman, a 21-year-old fitness buff and aspiring personal trainer from Pennsylvania who thought he could push through the illness but ended up dying when the flu progressed to organ failure and septic shock.
The majority of cases continue to be the H3N2 subtype of Influenza A, a particularly brutal strain that tends to cause more severe illness, particularly among the elderly and children.
Federal health officials cite the bad winter weather, holiday travel and the severe H3N2 strain for the high number of hospitalizations in the state and nationwide. The data comes from over 2,000 care providers like hospitals and clinics.
However, since the county confirmed its first flu death, authorities have performed a review of death certificates that goes back to December 10, McDowell said.
According to Mosaic, the second issue is that the flu vaccine is perceived to not be as effective this year as it normally would be.
H3N2 is one of the strains contained in this year’s flu vaccine along with two or three others, depending on the vaccine.
Influenza B has shown up early, with hospitals already dealing with the “A” type, which is more common at this time of year.
Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin said the season’s tally now surpasses the 15 deaths during the swine flu outbreak of 2009-2010. The flu vaccination can help prevent getting the flu or shorten its duration and lessen the severity.
So far, more than 151 million doses of vaccine have shipped, Fitzgerald said at the media briefing. “We’ve clearly based the baseline in November and we’re at the peak of it now”.
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More than 1,015 people have had the flu since the end of August, according to the DPH.
