CHICAGO, IL-It has been reported that the U.S. flu season has started, and while it is unclear if it “will be as bad as last winter’s,” some health experts are worried as CDC “data posted Friday shows a new version of the virus has emerged.” Most flu activity has been attributed to “a new version of the type A H3N2 virus that historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people.
That type is responsible for most flu infections so far this year, and more than half have been a new subclade K variant that is different from the strain this year’s flu shots were built to fight.
” Data “suggests current vaccines may still be somewhat effective against the new version of the flu,” but “some scientists and medical professionals are more worried about disappointing vaccination rates, a main reason why flu hospitalizations and deaths were unusually bad during last year’s flu season – one of the deadliest this century.”
Media Release/AMA Morning Rounds
