Flu alert: This year will be worst season in 13 years – ‘Get vaccinated’, say scientists

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Based on the latest October data, flu rates are twice as high as last year – Vaccination is required for people aged 6 months and up

THE influenza virususually occurs between October and May, with a peak period in December and January.

This year it appeared six weeks earlier in the United States, with high morbidity rates namely 880,000 cases, with 6,900 hospitalizations and 360 deaths due to the influenza virus, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The doctors of the Therapeutic Clinic of the School of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Theodora Psaltopoulou, Rodanthi Eleni Syrigou, Yannis Danasis and Thanos Dimopoulos (Rector of EKPA) summarize the data of the recent publication by Lena H. Sun on the subject of the increased severity of influenza this year in compared to the last 13 years.

The CDC reports that such high rates have been reported since 2009 with the H1N1 pandemic based on estimates based on the number of laboratory-confirmed cases, physician visits, hospitalizations, and deaths.

Based on the latest data from October, the incidence rates of influenza are twice as high as last year.

Read about: The World Health Organization calls on Europe not to be complacent about flu and coronavirus

William Schaffner, medical director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, notes that flu vaccination is lagging behind last year, with rates declining each year, which worries him as it looks like this year will be the worst flu season in 13 years.

The flu vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing hospitalization or death is uneven from year to year, and in previous years has ranged from 40% to 60%, according to the CDC.

Brammer emphasizes that this year’s vaccine satisfactorily covers the circulating strains. In the United States, the predominant H3N2 virus causes the most severe outbreaks among influenza A and B viruses circulating in humans. People who get H3N2 usually have the most complications, especially for the very young, the elderly, and people with certain chronic conditions. Schaffner adds that when a patient recovers from the flu, the inflammatory response created by the virus continues to cause complications in the body for another 4 to 6 weeks in those who are middle-aged or older, increasing the rate of heart attacks and strokes.

In the last two years, due to the coronavirus pandemic and increased personal protection measures, the incidence rates of influenza have been particularly low. Schaffner points out that it’s hard to know how long this year’s flu season will last, how severe it will be and whether different places will see different levels of respiratory disease in the population at different times.

In conclusion, getting the flu shot every year is essential and should be done before a flu outbreak starts as it takes about two weeks for protection to kick in.

The CDC reports that vaccination is necessary for people from 6 months of age and it is good to be completed before the end of October.

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