- Title: Rising flu cases drive up U.S. hospitalizations, CDC says
- Date: 5th December 2022
- Summary: ESCONDIDO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FILE - JANUARY 18, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HOSPITAL PATIENTS WHO ARE SICK WITH THE FLU
- Embargoed: 19th December 2022 22:10
- Keywords: CDC decade flu
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Health/Medicine,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA004463105122022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The United States is experiencing the highest levels of hospitalizations from influenza that it has seen in a decade for this time of year, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday (December 5), adding that 14 children have died so far this flu season.
U.S. hospital systems also continue to be stressed with a high number of patients with other respiratory illnesses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19. There have been at least 8.7 million illnesses, 78,000 hospitalizations, and 4,500 deaths from flu so far this season, according to CDC estimates. It urged people to get vaccinated.
Respiratory viruses are spreading as people gather indoors due to the colder weather. People also likely have weakened defenses after not being exposed to flu and RSV while working or schooling from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vaccination rates for people at higher risk from the flu - those 65 and older, children and pregnant women - are also lower than at this time last year. About 12% fewer pregnant women have been vaccinated so far this season compared to last season, and about 5% fewer children. Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 26, the rate of hospitalization for flu in the United States was 16.6 per 100,000 people. In the past 10 years, the cumulative rate during the same week of the year typically range from 0.1 to 2 per 100,000. COVID-19 cases have risen following the Thanksgiving holiday and COVID-related hospitalizations have also increased about 15% to 20% over the last week, according to the CDC.
Dr. Bruce Hirsch, attending physician in infectious diseases at Northwell Health in Manhasset, New York, urged people to get flu shots now - despite possibly being wary or tired of vaccinations.
"A lot of us, understandably, are over it," he said. "But when you get a vaccine for a preventable illness, you prevent YOU from spreading it to people around you. We still have an obligation to infants who have not yet had vaccines or who have not developed the immune response, the immune capability to protect themselves. We owe it to older individuals, to people who are taking treatments that lower their immune response to protect them as well."
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