U.S. Flu Season -2015-2016 The Silence Ends

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

Finally - It is just starting - but at least now we will be getting some numbers and reports. People do have the flu and while sporadic in some areas - it is hitting some - especially the older and very young - hard

2015-2016 Influenza Season Week 40 ending October 10, 2015

All data are preliminary and may change as more reports are received.

Background:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Influenza Division collects, compiles, and analyzes information on influenza activity year-round in the United States and produces FluView, a weekly influenza surveillance report, and FluView Interactive. The U.S. influenza surveillance system provides information in five categories collected from nine data sources. This is the first report of the 2015-2016 influenza season, which began on October 4, 2015

The geographic spread of influenza in Guam was reported as widespread; one state reported regional activity; one state reported local activity; Puerto Rico and 27 states reported sporadic activity; the U.S. Virgin Islands and 21 states reported no influenza activity; and the District of Columbia did not report.

http://www.examiner.com/article/carolinas-report-flu-deaths-at-beginning-of-flu-season

The 2015-2016 flu season for the United States began on Oct. 4 and both Carolinas have already reported flu deaths. South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control reported four influenza deaths on Oct. 20. Neighboring North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services reported a flu death on Oct. 1, for the current flu season.

As of Oct. 9, the CDC reports that 109,400,000 doses of influenza vaccine have been distributed. Manufacturers believe that they will be able to produce a total of just over 170 million doses for this flu season. During the 2014-2015 flu season, there were 147.8 million doses distributed.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced today that the state has suffered its first four flu-associated deaths of the season.

"Tragically, individuals from the Upstate, Pee Dee and Lowcountry regions have become our first lab-confirmed, influenza-associated deaths of the season," said Linda Bell, M.D. and state epidemiologist. "We are in the beginning stages of our state's flu season. It is important to get vaccinated now. The vaccine takes about two weeks to build up your body's protection against the virus, and vaccination is - by far - the best way to prevent the spread of the flu."

The influenza deaths in North and South Carolina are just the beginning. While the CDC estimates annual flu deaths, it is not a reportable illness so there are no national statistics.

comment: Why have they stopped reporting cases of Flu in the United States?

Childhood deaths from influenza have been reportable since 2004. In 2014-2015 there were 146 pediatric deaths due to influenza, 111 in the prior year and 171 in 2012-2013.

Medclinician

Or has it really ended?  The flu hasn't but despite it being "sporadic" throughout most of the U.S., this year many physicians are simply not reporting it. This makes it very hard to track and considering the last two years there was widespread flu at this time in the U.S., have we suddenly entered a "no Flu season" as we near Christmas?  Hardly seems likely. It is probably not that no one has the flu, or that it is only present in minute numbers - someone is not really counting or reporting it  as "the flu."

In my many years here at AFT, we have seldom seen the media avoid reporting about seasonal flu. Why is that?   We did see a total shutdown in the middle of May as "it was no longer flu season" of CDC weekly reports and most government site updates on the Flu. It did not stop - and flu continues no matter whether it falls within the parameters of certain months or not.

The search engines - especially Google - give us dismal results including great numbers of past flu reports not even organized by current date.  Also many result while showing a current date at the top may be 7 to 10 years old.

The silence has not really ended - it actually is more than ever - but it will not continue to be that way - with the mutations and circulation of a lot of really nasty strains - we will see levels equal or even more than those in the past - whether is obscured by calling it pneumonia, not if, but when.

Medclinician

Hey, Med, a friend of mine, age 49, living in the Albany, NY area, reports a virus up there. Symptoms are headache, neck and spinal pain, congestion and sinus pain, and lower abdominal cramps. In her case lasted about 3 days. Onset is sudden and pretty intense, but seems to resolve just as suddenly.

So far quiet in my plaza in Pittsburgh area, but I expect the usual round of illness that seems to crop up post-Thanksgiving/Christmas party season every year. I'll keep you posted.

https://www.influenzanet.eu/en/results/

DT, are the folks in your facility all elderly?

For this time of year especially, but really all the time, I keep Sambucol and Oscillococcinum in my med kit. When everyone around me is sick, I take Sambucol prophlactically twice a day and I carry both around me in case I start to feel sick, so I can start taking therapeutic doses without delay. Rinsing the nose and drizzling honey down the throat twice a day can help kill viruses at their source, before they have a chance to reproduce much.

Good luck.

I am curious about something here...   I have been exposed to multiple sick people... all probably with slightly different mutations of the virus.

Does it have any impact on the course of an illness if the exposure came from a single source or many sources like my case?    Does the level of exposure matter much?      Can many very small exposures be like being vaccinated?

In order:

jacksdad wrote: I guess we got a break - other than a few isolated cases of a nasty cough that hangs on for weeks, I've seen nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year, either in the patients at my clinic or in the community. It seems the vaccine was a good fit for the strains we've been exposed to so far this season if sick calls are anything to go by.

It is starting up for January. I have seen this before. Comparing this to previous seasons is not an accurate way to do it.  A few of the previous seasons were very bad and to say it is "not as bad" as they once more juggle the numbers - does not give us a good idea of what is happening. For one, the samples are only taken on a limited number of people, and the individual doctors are not reporting flu cases. No adult mortality is reported so we have no idea of the actual CFR. I had the bad sense to break my isolation and head for Walmart a few day ago and now I am fighting something really nasty. I don't buy the fact we "got a break this year" and the vaccine is a good fit.

Complications of this have once again sent someone near and dear to me to the hospital. Why does it always come in through Guam which is widespread and having a flu epidemic?

Medclinician

• For the week ending December 12, the proportion of people seeing their health care provider for influenza-like illness (ILI) is 1.9%, and remains below the national baseline (2.1%). Four of 10 regions (Regions 2, 3, 4 and 6) reported ILI at or above their region-specific baseline levels.
• One state (South Carolina) experienced high ILI activity. Puerto Rico and one state (New Jersey) experienced moderate ILI activity. New York City and two states (Minnesota and Virginia) experienced low ILI activity. 46 states experienced minimal ILI activity. The District of Columbia did not have sufficient data to calculate an activity level. ILI activity data indicate the amount of flu-like illness that is occurring in each state.
• Guam reported widespread influenza activity. Puerto Rico and two states (Maryland and New Hampshire) reported regional activity. Twelve states (Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah) reported local influenza activity. The District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 33 states reported sporadic influenza activity. No influenza activity was reported by three states (Delaware, Mississippi, and Rhode Island). Geographic spread data show how many areas within a state or territory are seeing flu activity.