Across the USA, flu season winding down

Trevor Hughes | USA TODAY

DENVER — Flu season is beginning to tail off, but thousands of Americans still are grappling with the illness blamed for killing nearly 100 kids, doctors and federal officials say.

Six states — including Connecticut, New Jersey and Oklahoma — still are reporting high flu-like illnesses, down from 11 states the week before. New York City and 30 states now are seeing only minimal activity, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Flu activity across the country has been at elevated" levels for 15 consecutive weeks, the CDC reported Friday. A typical flu season lasts 13 weeks.

"Because this season started relatively early, it is expected to last longer," officials said.

A flu virus that hits the elderly and young particularly hard and a vaccine that wasn't a good match for the dominant strain this year, known as H3N2, has been driving the deadly flu season. The vaccine was only 19% effective, compared to a "good" match that can prevent 60% to 65% of infections serious enough for people to see a doctor, health officials say.

"It was a fairly severe flu year, particularly for the elderly," said Lynnette Brammer, an epidemiologist with the CDC's influenza division.

Overall flu hospitalization rates are at 53.5 per 100,000 people, but for those who are age 65 and older, the rate was 266.1 per 100,000, the highest recorded since the CDC first began tracking hospitalization rates for adults during the 2005-06 season, Brammer said.

While statistics about elderly deaths from flu are not yet available, the CDC said this season's strain killed 97 kids across the USA.

"This is probably was the worst year we've had in the past three years," said Dr. Jim Kirk Jr., an infectious disease specialist at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. "What we saw is the same thing reflected across the country: The vaccine missed on the H3N2 component … and made the vaccine less effective than one would have liked."

While the main flu season is winding down, Brammer said the CDC's surveillance is showing an uptick in a second type of flu virus — a different strain for which the vaccine does offer protection. As a result, people who haven't yet had the flu vaccine still could benefit.

"We're still seeing flu cases. It's less than it was, and fortunately the emergency rooms aren't full," said Dr. Steven Sperber, the chief of infectious disease division at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. "The hospital is not as full with flu cases.

"It does seem the current season is winding down," he said. "But it wouldn't be all that surprising … if there wasn't an increase with a second strain."