US flu signs show slow drop-off
Flu activity in the United States was elevated last week for the fifteenth week in a row, but surveillance markers show that levels continue to decline.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that the percentage of doctor visits for flulike illness dropped from 3% to 2.5% last week, but it is still above the national baseline of 2%.
Seven of the CDC's 10 regions are still above their baselines for flu-linked doctor visits, and only six states—five fewer than the previous week—and Puerto Rico reported high flulike illness activity, another marker of doctor visits for the disease. Those states were Connecticut, Kansas, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. Flu is now widespread in 12 states and Guam, a drop from 20 states the week before.
One flu marker that continued its rise is the hospitalization rate for flu, which has been driven this season by a record level of flu hospitalizations in seniors. The overall level rose from 51.7 hospitalizations per 100,000 population to 53.5 per 100,000. For people age 65 and older, the rate was 266.1 per 100,000, the highest ever recorded since the CDC first began collecting the information for adults during the 2005-06 season.
Overall deaths from pneumonia and flu dropped to the epidemic threshold last week after 9 consecutive weeks of being above it. The CDC said it received reports of 6 more pediatric flu deaths, raising the season's total to 97.
Though increases in influenza B activity are occurring in some parts of the country, H3N2 is still dominant, with the drifted strain making up 71.9% of the characterized H3N2 samples last week.
Mar 6 CDC flu situation update
Mar 6 CDC weekly FluView update
Chinese officials confirm H7N9 case, death
Officials in China today confirmed H7N9 avian flu in a man in Anhui province, which has had several cases in recent days, as well as the death of a previously reported patient in the same province.
The case involves a 79-year-old man in critical condition who had exposure to poultry before he fell ill, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) reported. The man is from Susong County and is hospitalized in Hefei, the provincial capital, according to a statement from Anhui health authorities translated by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
Anhui officials also reported that a 48-year-old man who was hospitalized in critical condition in Ma'anshan has died of H7N9 flu, according to a separate statement posted by FluTrackers. He contracted the disease last month and died Mar 3.
The new H7N9 case brings the global total to 624, according to a FluTrackers case list.
Mar 6 CHP statement
Mar 6 FluTrackers thread
FluTrackers H7N9 case list
