It\u2019s beginning to look like a lot like a flu Christmas. Surges of influenza are hitting parts of the U.S. hard, and the worst is yet to come.<\/p>\n
Various regions of the country have reported a dramatic climb in cases lately, including New York City. Overall activity is on the rise nationwide, as are flu-related hospitalizations and deaths. This season is being fueled by an unexpected strain of \u201csuper flu.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201csuper flu\u201d <\/p>\n
A typical flu season is nothing to brush off. Annually, influenza<\/a> sickens millions of Americans, hospitalizes hundreds of thousands, and kills tens of thousands. But this winter has brought along an especially nasty variant of the H3N2 flu known as subclade K.<\/p>\n The variant is noticeably different on a genetic level from the flu strains scientists predicted would be circulating this season, meaning our vaccines aren\u2019t as effective against it as usual. Subclade K emerged towards the end of the winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and since then, it\u2019s quickly supplanted other strains of H3N2 and other flu viruses in general worldwide.<\/p>\n K already caused the flu season to arrive weeks ahead of schedule in European<\/a> and Asian<\/a> countries. In the UK, it\u2019s helped cause a spike of hospitalizations and an \u201cunprecedented wave of super flu.\u201d<\/a> And now it\u2019s clearly making its mark in the U.S.<\/p>\n Several school districts have had to temporarily<\/a>\u00a0shut down<\/a> due to flu outbreaks, while some hospitals are<\/a> reporting<\/a> an alarming rise of cases. Data collected<\/a> from the NYC Health Department shows that nearly 10,000 emergency room visits of flu-like illness were reported last week\u2014the largest weekly peak seen in at least a decade.<\/p>\n