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Our whole family has been zapped .my son and eldery FIL havn't came down with it yet but i suspect they will.it went through the rest of us boom boom.we have asked our MIL if she isnt better by tommorrow that she needs to see her dr. she has congestive heart failure and she is always coughing and coughing but she really sounds bad.
I have asthma and when i came down with this i thought i was going to have to go to ER it really kicked the asthma into high gear but i take strong meds for it and that has really helped.
at first i thought we were just getting colds but we all started running fevers and having the headaches and chills,yuckkky,my daughter missed a week of school and my hubby was home from work for a week also. and were still all coughing and hacking.this stuff is awful.
im concerned more for my inlaws who are not in the greatest of health and they got the flu shot ,the rest of us did not and yet they still got this flu and pretty bad.
hope everyone stays well.

they got the flu shot ,the rest of us did not and yet they still got this flu and pretty bad.

The cross reactivity data is mostly from animals and the current version of fujian-like flu has already drifted from last years A/fujian/411/2002 which I believe is what was used in the animal tests.

The next flu batch (for southern hemisphere) will probably use A/Wyoming/3/2003, which is from a Feb 2003 isolate, and the current version has already drifted from Wyoming also.

WHO is clearly playing "catch up", but may be accelerating mutations by using a vaccine that is only partially effective against Fujian (although 20-30% of H3N2 in the US is much closer to the Panama strain in the current vaccine).

The sub-type may be dependent on when and where you catch the flu. It seems that the more severe cases in the West are Fujian, and the cases that are just beginning to show up in the east are Panama. However, it looks like the Fujian strain is spreading to the east.

This type of spread is not unexpected. The Fujian strain started in China last year and was widespread in New Zealand and Australia this summer (southern hemisphere's winter).

Now Fijian is starting in the western United States and working its way east. Here is a media report from the Cincinnati area (southern Indiana/Ohio and northern Kentucky). Flu in general is still relative weak, although still earlier than seen in recent years. Only a few isolates have been subtyped, and they are all Panama (which is covered in the current vaccine):

"In Colorado, more than 6,300 people have been infected and at least six have died. A few other deaths have been reported in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The big concern: a flu strain called type A/Fujian for which this year's vaccine offers only partial protection.

So far in the Tristate, the few cases that have gone all the way through testing have been type A/Panama, a strain that is covered by this year's vaccine. No cases of A/Fujian influenza have been reported to local public health officials.

Season starting early

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has reported 70 cases of influenza. Mercy Anderson treated 26 adults and six children with flu symptoms over the weekend. Smaller numbers of cases have been seen at other Mercy hospitals, according to Mercy Health Partners spokeswoman Karen Kuhn. Several cases also have been reported at Bethesda North, said TriHealth spokesman Joe Kelley.

Ohio and Kentucky remain listed among 13 states with "sporadic" flu activity. Indiana is among 16 states with "regional" flu activity, according to the CDC. That means flu season is starting somewhat early this year. In Greater Cincinnati, cases usually peak in January and February and can continue into April. "