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According to new data released on Thursday, the flu killed and hospitalized more people in the United States last winter than any seasonal flu. It is the most detailed picture of the devastating impact of the respiratory virus, which has weakened millions of people as busy hospitals set up tents to treat patients.
At the beginning of a new influenza season, public health officials say last year's record highlights the importance of getting vaccinated every year. The vaccine can prevent infections and reduce the severity of complications of the disease.
According to figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu has killed about 80,000 people during the 2017-2018 season. The previous record for a regular flu season, based on analyzes dating back more than three decades, was 56,000 deaths.
"Last year was just a horrible season," said Daniel Jernigan, head of the CDC's influenza division. "It was just a huge amount of disease."
There were record levels of illness, hospitalization rates and deaths among children. The deaths of children totaled 180, he said. Only the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which killed 358 children, was worse since health authorities started tracking children's deaths from the flu 14 years ago.
The CDC recommends that people 6 months of age and older get a flu shot before the end of October. It takes about two weeks for the body to produce a complete immune response.
Despite the terrible season of last year, overall immunization coverage has remained stable; As in previous years, less than half of the US population has been vaccinated. But most worrying for civil servants was the decline in coverage among younger children – those under the age of 5 – who are at greatest risk of serious complications from the flu.
Officials and clinicians say they do not know why more people have not been vaccinated given last year's influenza season, which started early, winter and March, and lasted 19 weeks, making it one of the longest in recent years.
They speculate that some people have decided that flu vaccines, which are never as effective as most other vaccines, even in a good year, are not worth it. A new vaccine must be designed each year to best match the influenza viruses circulating during the previous season. A preliminary estimate that last season's vaccine was effective at around 36 percent overall may have convinced some people not to disturb, clinicians said. A final estimate shows that the vaccine was about 40% effective in reducing the risk of becoming sick enough to need to see a doctor.
But experts say that focusing solely on this measure misses many of the other lesser known benefits of the vaccine. The impact of influenza on the body goes far beyond acute respiratory infection, and a flu shot can prevent or reduce the severity of many complications.
"We have to try to do something about messaging," said William Schaffner, Medical Director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and Professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University.
The vaccine can reduce influenza and hospitalizations, protect pregnant women during and after pregnancy, and save lives for children, said Jernigan.
Recent studies show that the flu vaccine is as effective in preventing a heart attack as stopping smoking, taking cholesterol-lowering drugs or taking antihypertensives.
For those who are frail, flu can lead to a loss of independence in daily activities, said Janet McElhaney, a geriatrician and Canadian researcher.
"Basically, it's a vaccine that can do something else," said Jernigan of the CDC. "We may not have done as much effort for this in the past."
Pediatricians such as Seattle Children Hospital's Wendy Sue Swanson say that even a flawed vaccine provides a layer of protection. Last year, it was 67% effective against one of the influenza strains, which means that out of 100 children lined up in a gym, if all were vaccinated against the flu, 67 of them would not have coughed . their. "This extra layer of protection is important," she said.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the worst pandemic in the history of humanity, the Spanish flu that killed 50 million to 100 million people during the winter of 1918-1919.
It is virtually impossible to predict the next flu season. The season in the southern hemisphere has been relatively moderate, a possible indicator of what to expect in the United States.
The CDC uses mathematical modeling to estimate the total number of influenza-related deaths. Since the duration and severity of influenza seasons vary, estimates range from 12,000 deaths (in 2011-2012) to 56,000 (in 2012-2013).
Last season, more than 900,000 people were hospitalized, double the number of regular seasons.
Of the child deaths reported to the CDC last season, about 80% involved unvaccinated children. More than a third have occurred in children aged 6 months to 4 years. Influenza vaccine coverage for this group was 67.8%, lower than the 70% reported the previous season and about the same as five seasons earlier.
Swanson, who leads digital innovation at Seattle Children's Hospital, recently created a new skill for Amazon.com's voice assistant, Alexa, called Flu Doctor to answer questions about the flu. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, owns the Washington Post.)
"I'm just trying to understand how to build trust," she said. "In the end, fear tactics are not as effective. Parents feel a responsibility towards their own child. They are mainly motivated to keep their child alive.
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