NEW YORK — The U.S. flu season seems to be over. It was lengthy, however it wasn’t unusually extreme.
Final week, for the third straight week, medical visits for flu-like sicknesses dipped under the edge for what’s counted as an lively flu season, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned Friday.
Different indicators, like hospitalizations and affected person testing, additionally present low and declining exercise. No state is reporting a excessive quantity of flu exercise. Solely New England is seeing the form of affected person site visitors related to an lively flu season proper now, however even there flu influence is taken into account modest.
Because the starting of October, there have been at the least 34 million sicknesses, 380,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths from flu, in accordance with CDC estimates. The company mentioned 148 youngsters have died of flu.
CDC officers referred to as {that a} “reasonable” flu season, an evaluation shared by different medical doctors.
Even on the peak, “we felt strained however by no means over-capacitated” mentioned Dr. Jay Varkey, infectious illness doctor at Atlanta’s Emory College Hospital.
“It felt extra like a conventional respiratory virus season than after we had large upswings of COVID confounding it,” he added.
For a lot of the season, most sicknesses have been attributed to a milder flu pressure, and one which officers say was effectively matched to the seasonal flu vaccines. Preliminary knowledge offered in February advised the vaccines have been round 40% efficient in stopping adults from getting sick sufficient from the flu that they needed to go to a health care provider’s workplace, clinic or hospital.
COVID-19 sicknesses appear to have peaked at round he similar time as flu. So too did sicknesses attributable to one other respiratory virus, RSV.
CDC knowledge signifies coronavirus-caused hospitalizations haven’t hit the identical ranges they did on the similar level over the last three winters. Earlier this 12 months, COVID-19 was placing extra individuals within the hospital than flu. However proper now the hospitalization charges are about the identical, CDC knowledge reveals.
Though the season wasn’t significantly dangerous, it was lengthy — and springtime upticks in flu are at all times potential.
COVID-19 scrambled the methods well being officers monitor respiratory viruses.
The company used to rely the variety of weeks of elevated visits to physician’s workplace for flu-like signs, however COVID-19’s flu-like signs muddied that up. Now, the company focuses on the variety of weeks {that a} excessive proportion of specimens examined optimistic for flu.
Beneath the brand new measure, the 2023-24 flu season was 21 weeks lengthy. Beneath the earlier measure, flu seasons earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic tended to run between 11 and 21 weeks.
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The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives help from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Academic Media Group. The AP is solely chargeable for all content material.