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More than 80,000 Americans died of the flu during the winter of 2017-2018, the highest number in more than a decade, federal health officials said last week.
Although 90% of these deaths were in people over 65, influenza has also killed 180 young children and adolescents, more than ever since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began using its current surveillance methods.
The estimates were released at a press conference organized by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases to urge Americans to get vaccinated and fight the myths that scare some people.
The high mortality rate was unusual because it was due to a "normal" influenza season – albeit severe – and not to a new strain of pandemic influenza.
(This influenza, a strain of H1N1, has been described as "swine flu", despite the objections of the pork industry, as it appeared in a swine region of Mexico and was the first human virus to contain genes for the flu. Eurasian swine.)
The dominant strain last season was H3N2 flu, which is generally the deadliest of the four commonly occurring strains of seasonal flu.
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Last year's influenza vaccine was only about 40 percent effective in preventing infection – about the same as the previous season, according to the C.D.C.
The effectiveness of vaccines varies widely each year, ranging from a high of 60% in 2010-2011 to a low of 19% in 2014-2015.
It is impossible to know how effective this year's vaccine will be.
Infectious disease experts have long expressed frustration that medical science has not developed a universal life-cycle flu vaccine. The currently available vaccines target the peaks of the outer shell of the virus, which are the mutating parts the fastest.
Since it takes more than six months to manufacture the vaccine each year, manufacturers must choose in February the strains to be injected in September. Meanwhile, circulating flu can mutate to become a partial mismatch with what has been chosen.
But experts still urge people to get vaccines even imperfect, because although they are only 40% effective in preventing aches and runny nose, they are much more effective in preventing the worst outcome of the flu – death.
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