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Three months ago, the flu season was short in the United States. But a second, surprising viral wave has made it the longest of the last 10 years.
The flu season has officially lasted 21 weeks, according to information collected last week and published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So it's one of the longest since the government began tracking the duration of the influenza season over 20 years ago.
Some experts have compared unusual double waves to two different influenza seasons, compressed one after the other.
"I do not remember a season like this," said Dr. Arnold Monto, a researcher at the University of Michigan who has been studying respiratory disease for over 50 years.
The longest recent influenza season was 20 weeks, in 2014-2015.
The flu can cause a miserable and relatively benign disease in many people and a more serious illness in others. Young children and the elderly are the most exposed to the flu and its complications. Influenza vaccination is recommended every year, except for the very young.
The current season has started Thanksgiving week, a typical start time. At first, most diseases were caused by an influenza strain that tended not to cause as many hospitalizations and was more easily controlled by vaccines.
But in mid-February, a more harmful strain began to cause more illness and increase the number of hospitalizations.
This does not help: the most severe virus does not match the vaccine, said Lynnette Brammer of the CDC, who oversees the follow-up of the flu.
However, this influenza season is not as bad as 19 weeks last winter, the deadliest in at least four decades. About 80,000 Americans died of the flu and its complications last season.
The CDC estimates that the number of flu-related deaths this season is between 35,000 and 55,000.
Another good news: Brammer said that although the virus is notoriously unpredictable, there are signs that the flu season will soon be over.
"She's about to be finished," she said. "If nothing changes."
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