Outpatient Respiratory Illness Visits By Age Group
More than 70% of ILINet participants provide both the number of patient visits for respiratory illness and the total number of patient visits for the week broken out by age group. Data from this subset of providers are used to calculate the percentages of patient visits for respiratory illness by age group.
The percentage of visits for respiratory illness reported in ILINet are trending upward for all age groups .
* Effective October 3, 2021 , the ILI definition no longer includes without a known cause other than influenza.
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Geographic Spread Of Influenza/influenza
All provinces and territories reported activity level data for each week of the 2019-2020 influenza season. Like in previous seasons, flu levels peaked first in Western Canada , followed by Central Canada , and lastly in Eastern Canada .
- Nationally, the number of surveillance regions reporting localized or widespread influenza activity remained within peak levels between mid-December to mid-March .
- Regionally, the number of surveillance regions reporting localized or widespread influenza activity remained within peak levels in Western Canada between mid-December to early March in Central Canada between early January to mid-March and in Eastern Canada between early February to early March .
- Localized or widespread activity was not reported by any surveillance regions in the territories at any time during the 2019-2020 influenza season.
- Maps of the level of influenza activity reported by surveillance regions each week over the course of the season can be viewed on the FluWatch maps page.
Figure 2: Number of regions reporting localized or widespread influenza activity by region and week, Canada, season 2019-2020
Note: Localized or widespread activity was not reported by any of the territories.
| 0 |
Can I Get A Flu Vaccine If I Am Allergic To Eggs
The recommendations for people with egg allergies are the same as last season.
- People who have experienced only hives after exposure to egg can get any licensed flu vaccine that is otherwise appropriate for their age and health.
- People who have symptoms other than hives after exposure to eggs, such as angioedema, respiratory distress, lightheadedness, or recurrent emesis or who have needed epinephrine or another emergency medical intervention, can also get any licensed flu vaccine that is otherwise appropriate for their age and health, but the vaccine should be given in a medical setting and be supervised by a health care provider who is able to recognize and manage severe allergic conditions. . People with egg allergies no longer have to wait 30 minutes after receiving their vaccine.
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Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Supply & Distribution
Note: Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices United States, 2021-2022 Influenza Season has been . More information on the 2021-2022 season is also available.
Influenza viruses change from year to year, so influenza vaccines must be updated annually to include the viruses that will most likely circulate in the upcoming season. Once the viruses are selected for the new formulation, private manufacturers produce, test, release and distribute influenza vaccine.
National Influenza Surveillance Scheme
This paper provides a comprehensive summary and analysis of the National Influenza Surveillance Scheme, including surveillance systems that function outside of the Scheme, in 2015. The Scheme is coordinated by the Australian Government Department of Health and supported by a number of surveillance systems that aim to be nationally representative and monitor important aspects of severity, incidence and virology. Influenza activity monitored through its systems is presented in reports available on this page. Several jurisdictionally based surveillance systems that operate outside of the Scheme are used to inform local influenza activity trends. This paper describes the strengths and limitations of these influenza surveillance systems in terms of the aspects of influenza activity that they inform and their contribution to the overall monitoring of influenza activity in Australia.
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Will We See The Flu Make A Comeback Next Fall
When the pandemic restrictions are lifted, experts suspect the flu will make a comeback.
Flu is one of the most consistent and persistent illnesses in recorded medical history, with reports of influenza-like illness dating back to ancient Greece, Showalter said.
While we will likely see minimal flu activity in the 2021-2022 flu season due to continued safety precautions, Showalter said the flu isnt going anywhere.
Kelley is hopeful that the mitigation measures adopted to contain COVID-19 will last and help contain the flu in the future.
Building and maintaining a strong immune system, washing hands, self-isolating when you dont feel well, and even wearing a mask during the peak flu season will all reduce the spread of flu, even after the pandemic is history, Kelley said.
Number Of Reported Influenza
|
Number of New Hospitalizations Reported between February 13-19, 2022 |
Number of New and Previously Reported Hospitalizations with Testing between September 1, 2021 – February 12, 2022 |
Cumulative Hospitalizations and/or Deaths Since September 1, 2021 |
Number of New Deaths Reported with Testing between February 13-19, 2022 |
Number of New and Previously Reported Deaths with Testing between September 1, 2021 – February 12, 2022 |
Cumulative Deaths Since September 1, 2021 |
| 31 |
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Healthcare Practitioners Sentinel Syndromic Surveillance
During the 2019-2020 season, an average of 89 healthcare practitioners/centres across the country participated each week in influenza-like illness surveillance for the FluWatch program . On a weekly basis, these sentinel healthcare practitioners report the proportion of patients in their practice who had ILI based on the FluWatch definition:
Sudden onset of flu symptoms with fever and cough and with one or more of the following: sore throat, joint pain, muscle aches, or fatigue which is likely due to the flu.
- Children younger than 5 years old might also have symptoms like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
- Patients younger than 5 years old or 65 and older might not have a fever.
- Overall, ILI activity was below the five-year average for the majority of weeks this influenza season.
- During active influenza season , 1.4% of all patient visits reported by sentinels were due to ILI.
- The percentage of visits for ILI reported by sentinels peaked at the start of January at 2.9%.
- For the majority of the season, the highest percentage of visits for ILI was reported among those less than 20 years of age. The lowest percentage of visits for ILI was reported among adults 65 years of age and older.
Figure 5: Percentage of visits for ILI reported by sentinels by week, Canada, season 2019-2020
The shaded area represents the maximum and minimum percentage of visits for ILI reported by week from seasons 2013-2014 to 2018-2019
| 1.5% |
Seasonal Influenza In Alberta
Influenza data included in the interactive data application are aggregated by week and up-to-date as of end of week 7 , unless stated otherwise.
| Cases | Deaths |
|---|---|
| Alberta |
Figure 1: Laboratory-confirmed influenza cases by subtype
Figure 2: Laboratory-confirmed influenza cases by subtype from the previous five seasons
Figure 3: Laboratory-confirmed seasonal influenza cases in Alberta from the 2009-2010
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What Viruses Will The 2018
There are many different flu viruses and they are constantly changing. The composition of U.S. flu vaccines is reviewed annually and updated as needed to match circulating flu viruses. Flu vaccines protect against the three or four viruses that research suggests will be most common. For 2018-2019, trivalent vaccines are recommended to contain:
- A/Michigan/45/2015 pdm09-like virus
- A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 A-like virus
- B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus
Quadrivalent vaccines, which protect against a second lineage of B viruses, are recommended to contain:
- the three recommended viruses above, plus B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus
Why Did The Estimates For The 2017
CDCs model used to estimate the burden of flu includes information collected about flu testing practices. Because current testing data was not available at the time of estimation , the estimates that were previously published on the CDC website were made using testing information from prior flu seasons.
Since then, complete information to estimate the burden of the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 flu seasons has become available. Final testing information from the 2017-2018 seasons indicated an increase in testing for flu across all age groups and the FluSurv-NET sites. Because the percent of individuals who were tested for flu was high in all age groups, the adjustment for under-detection of flu was lower and our burden estimates decreased. The estimates for the 2019-2020 season pull information from all past seasons including the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons and because our methods use the most conservative estimates of under-detection of flu, the 2019-2020 burden estimates also decreased. The 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 season estimates are now considered final, however the 2019-2020 burden estimates are still preliminary and may change as more information becomes available.
More information on How CDC Estimates Flu Burden is available, as well as answers to frequently asked questions about CDCs flu burden estimates.
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Cdc: Number Of Flu Other Virus Cases Reach ‘historic’ Lows In 2020
July 22 — The 2020-21 flu season was the lightest on record since at least 1997, the first year in which cases of the virus were tracked, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Well under 1% of more than 1.1 million specimens collected from people experiencing flu-like symptoms tested positive for the seasonal virus, the agency said.
In a “typical” flu season, in which an estimated 35 million people are infected with the virus, as many as 25% of specimens tested come back positive, based on historical CDC data.
The reduction in flu cases seen between October 2020 and May 2021 is likely due to measures taken to limit the spread of COVID-19, such as the wearing of masks that cover the nose and mouth and social distancing, the CDC said.
Like COVID-19, the flu is spread through virus droplets emitted from the mouth and nose.
“The same prevention measures we use to prevent COVID-19 disease work for the flu, including physical distancing, masking, avoiding crowds and staying home when sick,” public health specialist Brandon Brown told UPI in an email.
” another reason for everyone to get the flu vaccine ASAP with return to work and return to school, which means a return to exposure,” said Brown, an associate professor of social medicine population and public health at the University of California-Riverside.
Flu Cases Dropped By 55 Million At Most
Cissy Lala, the Twitter user who made the claim in April, told USA TODAY in an email she found the 379 million figure on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. But USA TODAY found no evidence the CDC ever shared that figure.
She also pointed to a USA TODAY article from May regarding the decrease in flu cases during the most recent winter season.
In that article, however, USA TODAY reported the change between the two years was closer to 36 million.
The CDC said there were 2,038 flu cases reported in the United States between Sept. 27, 2020, and April 24, USA TODAY reported. The season before, between October 2019 and April 2020, the agency estimated about 38 million cases of flu.
Earlier this year, other news outlets also reported that about 38 million people were sick with the flu during the 2019-2020 season.
A on the count of flu cases for the 2020-2021 season, which the agency designated to be between Sept. 28, 2020, and May 22, said about 1,675 people tested positive for an influenza virus.
The latest flu estimates from the CDC say between 39 million and 56 million people were sick with the flu in the 2019-20 season.
So at most, that’s around 55 million fewer cases in one year not 379 million.
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Flu Surveillance Data Updates
Were there any updates in the methods for flu surveillance for 2020-2021?
For the 2020-2021 flu season, there were some changes to FluView surveillance methodology.
In addition to state-level data, the influenza-like-illness activity map displayed ILI activity by Core-based Statistical Areas , a U.S. geographic area defined by the Office of Management and Budget that consists of one or more counties anchored by an urban center of at least 10,000 people plus adjacent counties that are socioeconomically tied to the urban center by commuting.
Also, during most flu seasons, state and territorial health departments report the level of geographic spread of flu activity in their jurisdictions each week through the State and Territorial Epidemiologists Report. However, because COVID-19 and influenza have similar symptoms and it is difficult to differentiate the two without laboratory testing, reporting for this system was suspended for the 2020-21 influenza season.
More information on flu surveillance methodology and these updates is available online.
Why was pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19 mortality data added to FluView Interactive?
Flu Deaths Dropped 97 Percent In 2020 That’s Amazing News
This past year has been more challenging for people than anything our generation has experienced before. With everything bad thats happened because of the pandemic, theres been one silver lining: flu cases are way down. According to statistics, flu cases have dropped just over 97 percent, and thats amazing news. Heres whats going on.
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Flu Cases Globally And Nationally Have Dropped Dramatically
According to Scientific American, influenza cases all over the globe have dropped to minuscule levels. Were not seeing nearly the same numbers as we have in previous years because of the health measures in place to help slow the spread of COVID19 hand-washing, mask-wearing, staying home when sick, and socially distancing.
Outpatient Respiratory Illness Surveillance
The U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network monitors outpatient visits for influenza-like illness , not laboratory-confirmed influenza, and will therefore capture respiratory illness visits due to infection with any pathogen that can present with similar symptoms such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, health care-seeking behaviors have changed, and people may be accessing the health care system in alternative settings not captured as a part of ILINet or at a different point in their illness than they might have before the pandemic. Therefore, it is important to evaluate syndromic surveillance data, including that from ILINet, in the context of other sources of surveillance data to obtain a complete and accurate picture of influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and other respiratory virus activity. CDC is tracking the COVID-19 pandemic in a weekly publication called COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review. Information about other respiratory virus activity can be found on CDCs National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System website.
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Why Are Flu Deaths And Cases So Low
Nope. The numbers are so low because the flu isnt around. Theres just no flu circulating, Greg Poland, a researcher who has been studying the flu for the Mayo Clinic for decades, told Scientific American. Because of the measures in place for COVID, including increased handwashing, wearing masks, and staying home when sick, no one is out there spreading the flu either.
It turns out if you drastically reduce global travel, close public workplaces and schools, and promote mask-wearing and handwashing, youll cut off opportunities for common pathogens to spread, AXIOS wrote.
While the public health measure has a big hand in reducing numbers, AXIOS also reports that a record number of flu vaccine doses have been shipped this season, likely due to the fact that people were concerned about the flu in a COVID season.
Its estimated about 54 percent of American adults received a flu shot by the end of December 2020. That number was significantly higher than the previous year, as experts urged adults to get the flu vaccine.
Doctors were worried the flu season would cause a double hit to the health care systemthat adding the typical thousands of patients hospitalized for the flu with the influx of coronavirus patients may drain the resources. But thankfully, that didnt happen.
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Final 2019/20 Flu Numbers
The final data on flu season 2019/2020 was released by the CDC in April as COVID-19 continued to spread throughout the United States.
Between October 1, 2019 and April 4, 2020, the flu resulted in:
- 39 to 56 million illnesses
- 410,000 to 740,000 hospitalizations
- 195 pediatric deaths
Flu or Coronavirus? Learn the Difference
Health officials are urging people to get their flu vaccine as soon as possible this year to prevent the spread of flu amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Contact your primary care provider to schedule your flu shot or call your local pharmacy for more information.
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Flu Numbers On The Rise Again After Quiet Season In 2020
After a relatively quiet year in 2020, the number of flu cases in the U.S. is on the rise and closer to pre-COVID-19 numbers. And this year the flu season is complicated by the growth in Omicron cases placing more emphasis on the importance of solid infection control procedures.
The CDC estimates there have been between 1.6 million and 2.7 million flu illnesses between Oct. 1, 2021, and Jan. 8, 2022. These levels are much closer to the pre-pandemic times before the number of flu cases plummeted in the 2020-2021 season both in the U.S. and globally, despite high levels of testing.
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