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There have been at least 7.5 million illnesses and 3,100 deaths from flu this season, according to CDC data. And flu cases are expected to rise significantly in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
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Flu season is off to a rough start this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the virus arrived as expected, cases are rising faster, compared with previous years.<\/p>\n
Last week, more than 19,000 patients with influenza were admitted to hospitals, up about 10,000 from the previous week, according to new CDC data<\/a>. To date, the CDC estimates at least 7.5 million people have been sickened, and over 3,100 people have died from the flu.<\/p>\n The surge seems to be driven primarily by a new strain of the virus \u2014 subclade K of influenza A(H3N2) \u2014 that emerged in Australia over the summer.<\/p>\n \u201cAnywhere we detect this virus, you can see a large surge of influenza cases coming afterwards,\u201d says Andrew Pekosz<\/a>, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In the U.S., \u201cthe timing is not that much different from other flu seasons, but the number of cases, and how quickly those cases are increasing is something that is not usually seen this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n New York has been hit especially hard, with state health officials announcing over 71,000 cases last week \u2014 the most cases ever recorded in a single week in the state. But other states are seeing high levels of flu activity, particularly in the northeast, midwest and south.<\/p>\n \u201cThe map is mostly red,\u201d says Pekosz, indicating high levels of disease that will likely increase over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the middle of seeing the curve start to go up, we just don\u2019t have any sense of where it\u2019s going to stop,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the big concern in most of the medical communities right now.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s driving the upswing?<\/p>\n So far, there\u2019s no indication that this new strain is more severe, or even more contagious than previous years, says Florian Krammer<\/a>, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n But there have been changes to the virus that may allow it to get around our immune defenses, he says. \u201cThere\u2019s less immunity to it, and that\u2019s allowing the virus to spread very quickly and extensively.\u201d<\/p>\n There are some concerns that this season\u2019s flu vaccine may not be a perfect match<\/a> to the new strain, given it emerged after the formulation was decided last February. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to have a mismatch between the strain circulating and the vaccine,\u201d says Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC until he resigned in August.<\/a> \u201cBut the vaccine is still the best protection we have, even if it\u2019s imperfect protection.\u201d<\/p>\n Preliminary data from the United Kingdom, which saw an early surge of flu this year, suggests the vaccine is about 30 to 40% effective<\/a> at preventing hospitalization in adults. \u201cThose numbers are in line with what you would typically see,\u201d says Krammer, though he stresses those are preliminary estimates.<\/p>\n How to respond to the surge<\/p>\n