As the US enters what is usually the peak month of the flu season , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) has released its latest surveillance data on influenza activity – and the 2024 - 2025 season seems to be particularly intense .
In theupdate , the organisation stated that 7.8 percentage of doctor ’s visits reported through a grippe surveillance web in the week finish February 1 were for respiratory illness with flu - like symptoms . That ’s the highest see since the 2009 - 2010 time of year , when the swine influenza pandemic was active .
There ’s an important caution to this data , however ; not everyone showing flu - like symptom will actually have the influenza . They could have other respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 or respiratory syncytial computer virus ( RSV ) , which are also circulating in the US .
On the other hand , that does n’t mean influenza cases are n’t eminent . Not every visit to the Dr. is reported to the CDC , not every potential case of influenza is tested , and not everyone who does have the flu will chit-chat a doctor about it . That means there could be more flu cases than the CDC data point reflects .
At nowadays , the authority estimate that there have been “ at least 24 million illnesses , 310,000 hospitalizations , and 13,000 deaths from flu so far this time of year . ” The act of malady might even be as high as41 million , though this is a preliminary figure that may deepen over sentence with further data .
The berth may continue to deepen too , with the CDC noting upward trends in positive influenza test , patient role admitted to hospital with influenza , and the number of deaths attributed to flu . Some place in the US have seenschool closuresdue to the high number of case .
Experts agree that this class ’s season , while not yet officially a book - breaker , does seem to be an intense one . “ This is at least as bad as anything we ’ve see [ in recent memory ] , ” Dr Mark Rupp , a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center , toldTIME .
“ Our hospital has really had a steady volume of flu ( patients ) getting admitted . I ca n’t commemorate it really being this unbendable for this long without taper off , ” Dr Joseph Khabbaza , a critical care pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic , toldTODAY.com . “ I ’m also seeing more patient with the flu end up in the ICU , postulate oxygen or ventilators , than the common influenza time of year . ”
What ’s less clear is why it ’s been quite so bad , though some have orient the finger towards the presence of flu discrepancy associated with a higher mortality pace , as well as a decline in inoculation rates .
" The coarse style I ’m seeing in patients with severe flu is that they are unvaccinated , " said Dr Linda Yancey , an infective disease specialist at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston , verbalise to TODAY.com .
The CDCrecommendsthat everyone above the age of 6 months get an yearly flu vaccine , as it abbreviate the risk of influenza and the development of serious complications from it . According to theagency , the rate of influenza vaccination in adults this time of year has so far stay the same as the last , stand at 45 pct , though it has declined from 50.2 to 45.7 pct in tiddler .
