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Nearly every US state is battling high levels of flu-like illness, public health authorities warned Monday, as multiple respiratory viruses threaten to overwhelm the health care system as people travel for the holidays and gather indoors with friends and family.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they are seeing signs of an early and severe flu season that got significantly worse during Thanksgiving week, the official start of the holiday season.
That ferocious return of influenza coincides with the start of a third pandemic winter, with a new coronavirus that never went away.
“It’s a perfect storm for a terrible holiday season,” said American Medical Association board chairwoman Sandra Fryhofer, an infectious disease physician from Atlanta who joined a CDC briefing Monday.
Levels of flu-like illness, a measure of medical visits with respiratory symptoms that could also be caused by RSV or Covid-19, were high or very high in 47 jurisdictions during Thanksgiving week, compared with 36 of the previous week, said CDC Director Rochelle. Walenski. Hospitals admitted nearly 20,000 flu patients, nearly double the number of the last week. Officials also reported two new pediatric flu deaths, bringing the number of child deaths this season to 14.
In total, the CDC has recorded at least 8.7 million illnesses, 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths from the flu since October.
Meanwhile, coronavirus hospitalizations are also rising, while cases of respiratory syncytial virus, commonly known as RSV, remain high, though they appear to have peaked in some regions.
“The last few years have certainly not been easy, and now we face another wave of disease, another moment of overstretched capacity, and one of tragic and often preventable sadness,” Walensky said at the briefing.
Walensky urged Americans to get a flu shot and update coronavirus vaccine boosters, which are tailored to omicron subvariants. He said early data suggests that this year’s flu vaccine formulation appears to be well-adapted to circulating strains, and that the vaccines reduce hospitalizations even when they don’t stop infections.
Public health authorities have been concerned about flu vaccination rates that have been lower than in previous years, even in groups at high risk of hospitalization, including young children, pregnant people, and adults 65 and older.
“We all get booster fatigue, but please understand that you could get very sick this year and ruin your holiday celebrations if you don’t. get vaccinated,” Fryhofer added about the new booster vaccines against the coronavirus.
Officials also offered good news about RSV, which does not yet have a licensed vaccine.
Surges of that virus appear to have peaked in the South and Southeast and may be leveling off in the mid-Atlantic, New England and Midwest, Walensky said.
“While this is encouraging, respiratory viruses continue to spread at elevated levels across the country, and even in areas where RSV may be declining, our hospital systems continue to be stretched with large numbers of patients with other respiratory illnesses,” he added. .
Walensky urged people with flu or covid symptoms to see doctors early for prescription antivirals that greatly reduce the likelihood of serious illness if taken within the first few days of illness.
Health officials have also prioritized administering flu and coronavirus vaccines to reduce strain on hospitals, at a time when no major jurisdiction has imposed a mask mandate to limit transmission.
On Monday, Walensky said that the CDC recommends the use of face coverings on public transportation and that “we also encourage you to wear a high-quality, well-fitting face covering to help prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses, especially for the 5 percent percent of the population currently living in counties with high community levels of covid-19.”
The CDC is not a regulatory agency, so it can recommend masking but not mandate it.
The agency adopted a new system earlier this year to tie mask recommendations to a formula that emphasized stress on hospitals rather than just the number of infections. That formula is being tested as hospitals fill with people infected with other respiratory viruses, meaning new coronavirus infections can threaten hospital capacity even at lower volumes.
Walensky said the CDC was re-examining its metrics, but noted that Americans who are concerned about the viral triple threat can act to protect themselves immediately.
“You don’t have to wait for CDC action to put on a mask,” he said.
Source: news.google.com