Do you have your flu vaccine? Flu activity in the United States has reached the highest levels seen in 25 years, and health officials say the severe flu season is likely to get worse. According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this flu season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, which was one of the harshest seasons in recent history. A new flu strain called subclade k is responsible for the spread.
The subclade k variant began to spread after strains were chosen for this year’s flu shot, which means flu vaccines are likely to offer only partial protection against the virus. Montana, Vermont, South Dakota and West Virginia are the only states reporting low levels of flu activity. All other states are reporting high or very high flu activity. In terms of severity, the number of people hospitalized with the flu is not unusually high, but doctor visits for flu symptoms have not been this high since 1997.
