The flu season in the United States has officially started and the activity is being picked up really quick. As of the latest reports, the expansion has hit almost every US state in the country and the problems are becoming stronger in some West Coast states. Although not as big as the previous seasons, the activity is increasing so much that the number of hospitalizations and deaths are very high. According to the latest reports from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 3.7 million flu cases reported in the US.
Out of the 3.7 million cases that have been reported, many of them did not require hospitalization. However, there are 2000 recorded deaths due to the flu infection, which is very high. Out of the 2000 who succumbed to flu, 12 are children. It should be noted that the patterns in which the flu virus has shown up this season is different from recorded history. For instance, viruses that are currently affecting most of the people are the ones commonly seen at the end of the season. However, there are antiviral medication available.
“The latest CDC #FluView shows that the number of U.S. jurisdictions experiencing high levels of #flu activity nearly doubled since last week to now include 19 states, Puerto Rico and New York City,” read a tweet from the CDC Flu handle on Twitter. There have been several research attempts to analyse why the flu has severe impacts on certain age groups and the conclusion is that the rates of flu infection depends on their history with flu viruses and strands from the childhood. Nevertheless, both children and adults were advised to take the flu shots quite early this year and the adoption rates were not 100%, needless to say.
