US flu cases, hospitalizations keep climbing

News brief

Flu season ahead sign — iStockphoto / Arkadi Bojarsinov

Seasonal influenza cases continued to edge upward in most parts of the United States last week, with notable upticks in the south central, southeast, Mountain, and West Coast regions, according to the latest report today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

FluView data for the week ending November 18 show an overall 4.9% hike in flu positivity, up 0.5 percentage points from last week. The highest positivity rates were in the Mountain (11.2%), south central (7.6%), southeast (7.6%), and West Coast (7.2%) regions.

Respiratory viruses made up 3.7% of outpatient healthcare visits, which are at or above baseline in 7 of 10 Health and Human Services regions for the third week in a row. Nine jurisdictions reported moderate respiratory illness activity, and 12 characterized their activity as high or very high. The percentage of visits for respiratory illness is trending upward in only the 65-and-older age-group.

The New England and Mountain regions at are baseline, while the Mid-Atlantic, southeast, south central, and West Coast regions, as well as the region encompassing New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, are above baseline.

Nearly 80% of cases influenza A

Weekly flu hospitalizations continue their upward creep, with 3,296 admissions this week (cumulative hospitalization rate, 2.6 per 100,000). A total of 0.07% of all deaths were due to flu, including two children. Of the 529 virus strains reported by public health labs, 79.4% were influenza A, and 20.6% were influenza B. Of the 237 influenza A subtypes, 79.3% were H1N1, and 20.7% were H3N2.

The CDC recommends that everyone aged 6 months and older be vaccinated against flu each year and emphasizes that antiviral drugs should be initiated as soon as possible after infection—particularly for high-risk patients.

So far this season, an estimated 12,000 people have been hospitalized, and 740 have died. Flu has been confirmed as the cause of death in 3 children. The CDC recommends that everyone aged 6 months and older be vaccinated against flu each year and emphasizes that antiviral drugs should be initiated as soon as possible after infection—particularly for high-risk patients.

Avian flu strikes Ohio layer farm, Georgia duck producer

News brief

Lisa Schnirring

Highly pathogenic avian flu outbreaks, which ramped up again in early October, continue to take a heavy toll on commercial poultry farms, with the virus hitting a massive layer farm in Ohio that houses more than 1.3 million birds and more turkey producers in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said in its latest updates.

layer farm — UGA CAES Extension, John Amis / Flickr cc

Also, the virus struck a broiler farm in Maryland and a duck-breeding facility in Georgia, marking the state's first outbreak at a commercial farm. Also, Florida and Texas reported detections in backyard flocks.

The H5N1 outbreaks, which began in February 2022, have led to a record loss of nearly 66 million poultry across 47 states.

More H5N1 on Finnish fur farms, poultry in Japan

In developments abroad, the Finnish Food Agency reported 5 more H5N1 outbreaks on fur farms, raising the total to 65. Animal health officials are testing animals at all of the country's fur farms and recently reported 24 more over the past few weeks. Four of the latest affected farms raised blue fox, and one produced raccoon dogs.

Elsewhere, Japan reported its first poultry farm outbreak of the season, which occurred at a farm in Saga prefecture that houses 40,000 chickens, according to The Mainichi, a daily newspaper in Japan. The report did not list the subtype.