Flu cases on the rise in children and young adults, CDC says

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a health notice on Wednesday indicating that influenza cases have increased in young adults in recent weeks.

Although influenza cases are still low nationally, more than 90 percent are in children and young adults aged 5 to 24, according to the CDC.

Most cases are of the H3N2 lineage – a strain according to health experts is particularly troublesome because it tends to mutate faster than other flu variants. The last time H3N2 was the dominant strain was the 2017-18 influenza season, when the United States recorded 710,000 influenza-related hospitalizations and 52,000 influenza-related deaths, the worst since 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.

The CDC investigated a flu outbreak at the University of Michigan where hundreds of students tested positive for the flu. Flu epidemics have been reported on other college campuses over the past month.

Experts fear that students and young people who may have been exposed to the flu could spread it across the country as they coming home for vacation.

“This is the time of year when a lot of people are going to get together for the holidays for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years, and there is just the potential to amplify it,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, specialist. of infectious diseases at the University of Toronto.

He said that people, especially those who are most at risk for serious illness, should get vaccinated because the virus does not stay long in a particular age group.

“It happens. We don’t really know how big an influenza season will be, but we are going to have an influenza season,” he said.

The flu season generally runs from October to May, with activity tending to peak between December and February, According to the CDC.

Flu experts had previously said they feared the nation might be at risk for a severe flu season this year after cases of seasonal flu hit an all-time high last year when large parts of the country were closed due to the pandemic.

Experts urge people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu, claiming that an increase in influenza infections this winter could impose an additional burden o

n the country’s health system, which is already facing an increase in coronavirus cases.

As part of the health advisory, the CDC recommends that people with flu-like symptoms get tested for the flu and COVID-19.

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