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The flu is soaring in seven US states and rising in others, health officials say (apnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

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The U.S. flu season is underway, with at least seven states reporting high levels of illnesses and cases rising in other parts of the country, health officials say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted new flu data on Friday, showing very high activity last week in Louisiana, and high activity in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico and South Carolina. It was also high in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory where health officials declared an influenza epidemic earlier this month.

“We’re off to the races,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert

Traditionally, the winter flu season ramps up in December or January. But it took off in October last year, and is making a November entrance this year.

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[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even the flu is not "just" the flu. I think a lot of people mistake nasty head colds for the flu when they say "I get the flu all the time " I've only had flu twice in my life, and trust me, it's way worse than most respiratory viruses. Covid was the same for me recently. Trending very badly in just the 24 hrs before I started Paxlovid

[–] Ranvier@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So much this. People underestimate the flu and don't take it seriously. Here's how many it kills in the US by year. Usually in the 30-50,000 people range. Except for the 2021-2022. Since everyone was masking and careful about infections.

Some things people don't realize influenza can cause in addition to respiratory symptoms and pneumonia which are already bad enough include Guillan barre syndrome ( a severe inflammatory neuropathy) , Encephalitis (brain infection/inflammation), heart attacks, myocarditis (inflammation and destruction of heart muscle), rhabdomyolysis (destruction of skeletal muscle), and of course plain ol septic shock with every organ system failing.

Anyways the majority of these deaths are preventable if people get their flu shot. Does it protect against every possible strain of flu? No, but most years it protects against most of them. And it's impossible for the injectable vaccine to actually give you the flu, that's a myth. If you feel a little sore that's your immune system doing what it's supposed to after the vaccine.

I think if we told most people, hey there's this new disease leopard pox and it killed 50,000 people last year, do you want a vaccine that's 40-60% effective at stopping all infection and an even higher rate of preventing serious disease? People would be like hell yeah. Influenza is a bad disease, get your shot. Doubly so if you're young, old, or have pre existing health conditions.

[–] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I don't believe influenza has the same risk of long-term symptoms or disability as covid. It still sucks to get it though.