Flu Season Raged Over Thanksgiving

Editor’s observe: See chilly and flu exercise in your location with the WebMD tracker. 

Dec. 2, 2022 – The flu virus made the many of the Thanksgiving vacation by reaching the best stage of nationwide exercise seen for the reason that 2017-18 influenza season, in keeping with the CDC. 

The most important 1-week improve in what’s turning into an unprecedented flu season had flu-like exercise at 7.5% for the week of Nov. 20-26, as measured by the proportion of outpatient visits reported to the CDC that concerned respiratory sickness, which can additionally embody respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19.

That 7.5% is the best stage of flu-like exercise recorded in america since early February 2018, on the peak of the 2017-18 flu season, and the best price recorded in November for the reason that CDC started monitoring such information in 1997. Flu-like exercise reached 7.7% in October of 2009 however then dropped beneath 7% by the primary week of November and didn’t rise once more for the remainder of that season, the CDC’s information presents.

There are extra indicators of a worse flu or flu-like season this 12 months.. The entire hospitalization price for confirmed instances of flu, 16.6 per 100,000 folks, is greater than the speed seen at this level within the season throughout any season since 2010-2011, the CDC stated.

The excessive price of hospitalizations from Nov. 20-26 is almost double the the earlier week’s numbers, the CDC famous in its weekly Fluview report.

To this point this season, the CDC estimates, “there have been at the least 8.7 million sicknesses, 78,000 hospitalizations, and 4,500 deaths from flu.” In 2018-19, the final full influenza season earlier than COVID, there have been 148 deaths by means of the primary 8 weeks, based mostly on CDC information.

Flu-like exercise on the state and territory ranges, which the CDC categorizes on a scale vary from 1-13 – from minimal (1-3) to very excessive (11-13) – places 31 states at very excessive for the week, in contrast with 19 the week earlier than. Solely New Hampshire and the Northern Mariana Islands are within the minimal vary, in keeping with the CDC.