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The memories of last year's fierce influenza season in which 80,000 people died of the flu and its complications – the largest number of deaths in 40 years – are still premature to predict the new influenza season.
"The preliminary results suggest that this could be a milder season, based on what we see in the southern hemisphere, but I warn you that it's only a hypothesis." said Dr. Aaron Glatt, president of the Nassau Community Hospital in Oceanside and an infectious disease specialist.
He and other experts have pointed out that the only predictable thing about the flu is its lasting unpredictability.
The infection can be prevented by vaccination or, at the very least, made less debilitating – and its duration shortened – if an infection occurs despite a shot, Glatt said.
Influenza activity begins to develop in this region of the globe – the northern hemisphere – and continues in the spring. The influenza season in the southern hemisphere extends from June to October.
The southern sector of the planet is often used as a spokesman for what could happen in this part of the world. Last year, a deadly flu season in Australia – one of the worst ever recorded – was the announcement of what would soon be happening in the United States and elsewhere in northern Ecuador.
"Keep in mind that 80,000 people died during the last influenza season [in the United States] and that includes 200 children, "said Glatt, a spokesman for the American Society of Infectious Diseases.
The extremely high death toll was revealed last week by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an interview with The Associated Press.
State health authorities have recorded six pediatric deaths in New York, none on Long Island, during the 2017-2018 flu wave. The season has been so aggressive that influenza activity has been reported until the last weeks of May, according to state health statistics.
Glatt said the toll of 80,000 deaths is shocking for an infectious disease preventable by the vaccine. The usual flu toll is between 12,000 and 56,000 in one season, he added.
"At the risk of looking like a broken record, my message is this: get vaccinated," added Glatt.
Experts attributed the higher mortality than usual to the aggressiveness of a circulating virus strain A last season. H3N2, a dominant strain that circulates each year, rapidly varies its surface proteins from one season to the next. Last year, it was particularly naughty.
Howard Jacobson, Chairman of the Long Island Pharmacists Society, said that with a new influenza season, it's important for people to know that a large vaccine is available.
As the owner of three Long Island pharmacies, Jacobson conducts vaccination clinics as a public health center. service to help fight the flu on the island.
"The day before yesterday, we held a flu clinic at West Hempstead Library," said Jacobson, owner of the Rockville Center Pharmacy, Ryan Medical Center Pharmacy, and West Hempstead Pharmacy. "Only two people had registered in advance, but 30 showed up to be vaccinated. Fortunately, we had a lot of vaccines.
Jacobson said there have been reports of occasional shortages of high-dose vaccines for people aged 65 and over in a few chain pharmacies, but the vast majority of the island's outlets are well stocked. .
Dr. Gary Leonardi, a virologist at the University of Nassau Medical Center in East Meadow, said he had not seen any evidence that influenza transmission had begun in Long Island. As chief virologist at a large hospital that receives patient samples for respiratory viruses, Leonardi said there was no positive test in his laboratory for seasonal illness.
"People are starting to enter the hospital with respiratory symptoms and in recent weeks we have done about eight to ten quick tests of influenza a week," said Leonardi.
He said the tests were positive for rhinoviruses, the common cold pathogens, and parainfluenza virus, a respiratory infectious agent unrelated to the flu despite its name.
The Parainfluenza virus, rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, among others, are what it calls travel companions, the large number of respiratory viruses that, like the flu, are common from the autumn to the spring .
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