Flu Season Just Keeps Getting Worse Death rate jumps above epidemic threshold

lu deaths surpassed the epidemic threshold at the end of December, with pediatric flu-related deaths also up, according to data from the CDC. The CDC's weekly FluView surveillance report found that pneumonia- and influenza-related mortality comprised 8.2% of all deaths in the last week of December. This was above the epidemic threshold of 7.1%. Pediatric influenza-associated deaths were also up, from seven a week ago to 10 reported in this week's data. Cumulative pneumonia and influenza-related hospitalizations continued to climb. The CDC reported 31.5 per 100,000 hospitalizations from Oct. 1, 2017, to Jan. 13, 2018 -- up from 22.7 per 100,000 in the CDC's previous report. Because this is a cumulative rate, the number is expected to increase as the flu season progressed, CDC researchers said two weeks ago in a conference call with the media. Not surprisingly, older adults over age 65 comprised the greatest portion of influenza-related hospitalizations, which rose sharply from previous-week estimates (136.5 per 100,000 versus 98.0 per 100,000, respectively). This was followed by adults ages 50-64, https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/uritheflu/70656?xid=NL_breakingnews_2018-01-22&eun=g721819d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBreak_012218&utm_term=Morning%20Break%20-%20Active%20Users%20-%20180%20days