“The flu season is not over yet,” said US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD. America’s top doctor held a media briefing along with Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Their purpose — to warn Americans against complacency.<\/p>\n
Although, influenza activity remains low nationwide, federal health officials have noticed a slight increase in flu-related hospitalizations in the Southeast, and particularly in Georgia where H1N1 vaccination rates were among some of the lowest in the country. Schuchat described the trend as “worrisome” because people who who thought H1N1 no longer posed a significant threat may suffer needlessly.<\/p>\n
“With more vaccine available, all Americans can now get immunized,”\u00a0 Benjamin said.<\/p>\n
Nationally, most key flu indicators remained flat through mid-March. Last week, the proportion of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) was 1.8 percent , which is below the national baseline (a year-long average for flu activity) of 2.8 percent.<\/p>\n
Although no states reported widespread influenza activity during that period, regional influenza activity has been reported in three states: Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia.<\/p>\n
Last week, officials with Georgia’s Department of Community Health (DCH) held a similar news conference.<\/p>\n
“We aren’t 100 percent sure that a third wave is occurring or will occur,” said Patrick O’Neal, MD, director of the DCH’s Division of Emergency Preparedness and Response. “But if there is a third wave, it may happen in our state first… Residents need to continue taking precautions against the flu and seek vaccination if they haven’t been vaccinated.”<\/p>\n
H1N1 continues to be the dominant virus identified in laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza. CDC officials say it remains similar to the virus chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine and, except in rare cases, remains susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir (TAMIFLU) and zanamivir (RELENZA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“The flu season is not over yet,” said US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD. America’s top doctor held a media briefing along with Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Their purpose — to warn Americans against complacency. Although, influenza activity remains low nationwide, federal health officials have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4504,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4504"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}