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Are you at risk? More states are reporting high or widespread flu activity and we're still a month away from when flu season typically peaks. (USA NOW, USA TODAY)
A South Arkansas Community College practical nursing student gives a flu shot during the Arkansas Department of Health's mass flu clinic in El Dorado, Ark., on Oct. 25, 2013.(Photo: Michael Orrell, The El Dorado News-Times, via AP)
The flu slipped just below epidemic levels over the holidays but spread even farther across the USA and took the lives of six more children.
Twenty-one children have been killed by the flu this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Almost all flu cases this season have been a strain known as Influenza A (H3N2). H3N2 seasons are generally worse than others, and this year's flu vaccine is not a good match, so it will provide less protection than in other years, though CDC officials still encourage people to get vaccinated.
After officially becoming an epidemic during the week of Dec. 20, the flu slipped slightly below the threshold the next week, though it is widespread in 43 states, up from 36 the week before, the CDC reported. The CDC defines an epidemic using a complex formula based on the rate of deaths from flu compared with previous years.
The government has confirmed with lab tests 3,441 flu-related hospitalizations in 13 sample states since Oct. 1. Actual numbers are far higher across the country.
Young children and older adults are most likely to require hospitalization and have life-threatening cases of the disease.
For the week ending Dec. 27, nearly 6% of doctors' office visits were for flu-like illness, compared with a normal baseline of 2%. It was the sixth week in a row above the baseline; on average, flu seasons top the baseline for about 13 weeks, the CDC said, suggesting the season is not halfway through.
That's why, although the vaccine generally takes two weeks to take full effect, CDC officials still recommend vaccination. Even when it is not a perfect match for the year's main strain, the vaccine can reduce the infection's severity, says Michael Jhung, medical officer at the CDC's influenza division.
Jhung says the CDC urges people, especially seniors, young children and people with underlying medical conditions such as asthma or diabetes, to take antiviral medication at the first sign of the flu's symptoms. Medications such as Tamiflu and Relenza, available only by prescription, have been shown to reduce flu symptoms, especially when taken within the first day or two. "If you can do it under 24 hours, it's going to be better for the patient," Jhung says.
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