Think Flu Season Is Bad? It Might Get Even Worse
By Bloomberg. The influenza virus that’s sickened millions of Americans this season is already the most widespread outbreak since public health authorities began keeping track more than a dozen years ago. Now, with the threat of more strains emerging, it might get even worse.
“Flu is everywhere in the U.S. right now,” said Dan Jernigan, director of the influenza division at the national Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “This is the first year we have had the entire continental U.S. be the same color on the graph, meaning there is widespread activity in all of the continental U.S. at this point.”
The most optimistic assumption among government experts is that the season peaked a few weeks ago, marking the apex of what was already an early and severe outbreak. However, such an outlook requires observers to ignore that outpatient doctor visits have continued to climb (albeit more slowly) in the first week of 2018, yielding the most flu cases ever for this time of the year.
Even if the hopeful assessment by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bears out, there will still be an additional 11 weeks to 13 weeks of flu circulating across the country. “In general, we see things peaking right about now, but that means there is still a whole lot more flu to go,” Jernigan said. “In addition, there are other strains of influenza still to show up that could be a major cause of disease.” (Read more from “Think Flu Season Is Bad? It Might Get Even Worse” HERE)
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Pet Owners Warned of Dog Flu
By CBS Local. Some people are worried about their pets getting the flu because so many people are infected.
There is canine influenza, more commonly known as the dog flu, and the symptoms are similar to what humans get. But it’s not the same virus.
The flu is now widespread across the country and so are respiratory infections and colds . . .
Veterinarians say canine influenza mainly affects dogs and the signs are much like what you see in people. (Read more from “Pet Owners Warned of Dog Flu” HERE)
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