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Posted on 02/20/2014 3:03:59 PM PST by Libloather
People aged 18 to 64 represent 61 percent of all flu hospitalizations this flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This age group accounted for only about 35 percent of flu-related hospitalizations the last three seasons, officials said at a CDC news conference.
"We think one of the reasons flu is hitting younger adults hard is that such a low proportion get a flu shot, even those with underlying conditions like asthma, COPD, and diabetes," said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden at the news conference.
"The bottom line is, influenza can make anyone very sick, very fast and it can kill. Vaccination every season is the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself," he added.
More deaths than usual have occurred among younger and middle-aged adults this season, too. People 25 to 64 years old have accounted for about 60 percent of flu deaths -- triple the rate for that age group three seasons ago, the CDC said.
(Excerpt) Read more at healthyliving.msn.com ...
This type of reporting appalls me. It is just plain dumb and essentially irresponsible. Why would it be so difficult to report the actual number of deaths attributed to flu?
as always, its very rare for a normal healthy person to just die from flu.....in almost all cases imo of course from different readings, that person has underlying health problems such as uncontrolled diabetes, kidney disease, or immune disease etc...
the article says if you get the flu you should rush right into the dr....I sort of disagree....stay home and baby yourself and keep away from other sick people....
we've had several nurses who all took the flu shot who got the flu.....
And the actual number who got the flu shot and didn't. In Portland, we had a young person die from the flu who received a shot.
People don't realize that their kids can easily catch and spread these nasty illnesses. And no the vaccination is not fool proof. But it helps a lot. It will lessen the symptoms and will probably stop the propagation.p>
18-64 represents 61% of those who got the flu. That age group probably also represents 61% of the entire population which means...it means zip.
It is like throwing darts at a dart board.
I think that's new side effect of getting flu shots nowadays.
=-O
So what! The flu is notorious for mutating quickly and being hard to target with vaccines. Even partial immunity is better than none.
My father always insisted that everyone working in our family business get flu shots. In 2007 we all got the flu, but it was pretty mild compared to previous times I have gotten the flu.
It takes time to amass the numbers, and the flu season is not over yet. At this time, the best the CDC can do is say that the reported number of deaths is higher now than it was at this time last year. If you are really interested in the numbers, you can check them out over at the CDC.
Hospitals are the most dangerous place on earth.
That is why there is a "case fatality rate" number, not a total death rate number. We can only calculate death rates among people who have sought medical care, since there is no way of knowing how many people get a specific disease when not everyone goes to the doctor.
as always, its very rare for a normal healthy person to just die from flu.....in almost all cases imo of course from different readings, that person has underlying health problems such as uncontrolled diabetes, kidney disease, or immune disease etc...
Not really. While people with underlying conditions are more prone to serious disease with influenza, it can and does kill perfectly healthy people. One of the nasty characteristics of flu is that it suppresses the immune system, making people susceptible to bacterial infections that otherwise wouldn't have affected them. This is why many influenza patients die of bacterial pneumonia.
the article says if you get the flu you should rush right into the dr....I sort of disagree....stay home and baby yourself and keep away from other sick people....
The antiviral drug Tamiflu (and similar drugs) works best when administered within 48 hours of symptom onset. If you wait until you feel like you're at death's door before seeking treatment, the drugs won't be much help. At that point, even with extraordinary measures (e.g. ECMO), you may still die. Your best bet is to go to the doctor, but wear a surgical mask and wash your hands frequently so that you reduce risk of infection to other patients.
we've had several nurses who all took the flu shot who got the flu.....
It takes at least a week to develop immunity following a vaccination. If they were exposed right after getting the vaccine, then they would not have been protected yet.
In addition, there are many illnesses called "influenza like illness" (ILI), most of which are not influenza but cause similar symptoms. They could have been sick with one of the non-influenza ILIs. Furthermore, because there are so many influenza viruses and they mutate so rapidly, the nurses could have become ill from one of the viruses that was not included in the vaccine. Last, because of technical difficulties with the vaccine, some people do get sick with one of the same viruses included in the vaccine. In this case, their disease will be less severe than otherwise because they will still have partial immunity (and partial is better than none).
The usual age groups affected severely by the flu are infants and small children (because their immune systems are still developing) and seniors over the age of 65 (because their immune systems are "senescing" or becoming weak). It is very unusual when high numbers of people outside of these age groups become seriously ill and die; the numbers this year are skewed from the normal pattern.
Those numbers are tracked by the medical community. If you are really interested in them, I suggest Googling "CDC flu." Several studies have been published discussing the efficacy of this year's flu vaccine. Unfortunately, the flu vaccine only contains three influenza viruses, but many other influenza viruses are in circulation, and influenza has a very high mutation rate.
Historically, the young have always been the least likely to get a flu shot.
That may change, since the recommendations for who should receive flu shots have been revised in the last few years.
Very small children are especially vulnerable to influenza. Anyone who is older than 6 months can receive the vaccine.
Many thanks for the link. I had actually not looked at this data set before. However, it seems after a quick look at this link that the data on actual deaths is not reported with the exception of children under 5 which is available because of mandatory reporting. Here the data indicates that influenza is a small absolute and small relative number of those children who died from pulmonary causes. I guess my point stands. If you say “deaths up” in your headline, you really need to give a number. I see no such number in the CDC data. The only numbers suggest that deaths for under 5s is down since the 2012-13 season.
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