NEW YORK (AP) — The flu virus is hanging on in the U.S., intensifying in some areas of the country after weeks of an apparent national decline.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Friday showed a continued national drop in flu hospitalizations, but other indicators were up — including the number of states with high or very high levels for respiratory illnesses.

“Nationally, we can say we’ve peaked, but on a regional level it varies,” said the CDC’s Alicia Budd. “A couple of regions haven’t peaked yet.”

Patient traffic has eased a bit in the Southeast and parts of the West Coast, but flu-like illnesses seem to be proliferating in the Midwest and have even rebounded a bit in some places. Last week, reports were at high levels in 23 states — up from 18 the week before, CDC officials said.

Flu generally peaks in the U.S. between December and February. National data suggests this season’s peak came around late December, but a second surge is always possible. That’s happened in other flu seasons, with the second peak often — but not always — lower than the first, Budd said.

So far, the season has been relatively typical, Budd said. According to CDC estimates, since the beginning of October, there have been at least 22 million illnesses, 250,000 hospitalizations, and 15,000 deaths from flu. The agency said 74 children have died of flu.

COVID-19 illnesses seem to have peaked at around he same time as flu. CDC data indicates coronavirus-caused hospitalizations haven’t hit the same levels they did at the same point during the last three winters. COVID-19 is putting more people in the hospital than flu, CDC data shows.

The national trends have played out in Chapel Hill, said Dr. David Weber, an infectious diseases expert at the University of North Carolina.

Weber is also medical director of infection prevention at UNC Medical Center, where about a month ago more than 1O0 of the hospital’s 1,000 beds were filled with people with COVID-19, flu or the respiratory virus RSV.

That’s not as bad as some previous winters — at one point during the pandemic, 250 beds were filled with COVID-19 patients. But it was bad enough that the hospital had to declare a capacity emergency so that it could temporarily bring some additional beds into use, Weber said.

Now, about 35 beds are filled with patients suffering from one of those viruses, most of them COVID-19, he added.

“I think in general it’s been a pretty typical year,” he said, adding that what’s normal has changed to include COVID-19, making everything a little busier than it was before the pandemic.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Look for flu and COVID-19 infections to ramp up in the coming weeks, U.S. health officials say, with increases fueled by holiday gatherings, too many unvaccinated people and a new version of the coronavirus that may be spreading more easily.

High levels of flu-like illnesses were reported last week in 17 states — up from 14 the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

“Folks are traveling a lot more this season. They want to see their families,” said the CDC’s Dr. Manisha Patel. “And all of that sort of adds to the mix” in the spread of viruses.

Health officials are keeping an eye on a version of the ever-evolving coronavirus, known as JN.1. The omicron variant was first detected in the U.S. in September and now accounts for an estimated 20% of cases. The CDC expects it to reach 50% in the next two weeks, Patel said.

It may spread easier or be better at evading our immune systems, but there is no evidence that the strain causes more severe disease than other recent variants, health officials say. And current evidence indicates vaccines and antiviral medications work against it.

As for flu, early signs suggest current vaccines are well-matched to the strain that is causing the most illnesses, and that strain usually doesn’t cause as many deaths and hospitalizations as some other versions.

But the bad news is vaccinations are down this year, officials say. About 42% of U.S. adults had gotten flu shots by the first week of December, down from about 45% at the same time last year, according to the CDC.

Americans have also been slow to get other vaccinations. Only about 18% have gotten an updated COVID-19 shot that became available in September. At nursing homes, about a third of residents are up to date with COVID-19 vaccines.

And only 17% of adults 60 and older had received new shots against another respiratory virus. RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, is a common cause of mild coldlike symptoms but it can be dangerous for infants and older people.

The CDC last week took the unusual step of sending a health alert to U.S. doctors urging them to immunize their patients against the trio of viruses.

The Carolinas are currently seeing the heaviest traffic for respiratory infections in emergency rooms, according to CDC data posted this week.

It’s not as dire as some past winters, but some patients are still waiting days to get a hospital bed, noted Dr. Scott Curry, an infectious diseases specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

“We’ve barely been cold in South Carolina, and flu tends to hit us very hard when people actually get some cold weather to deal with,” he said. “We could get worse, very easily, in the next four to eight weeks.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Flu is picking up steam while RSV lung infections that can hit kids and older people hard may be peaking, U.S. health officials said Friday.

COVID-19, though, continues to cause the most hospitalizations and deaths among respiratory illnesses — about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every week, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency is also looking into reports of pneumonia outbreaks in children in two states, but Cohen said “there is no evidence” that they are due to anything unusual.

As for the flu season, seven states were reporting high levels of flu-like illnesses in early November. In a new CDC report on Friday, the agency said the tally was up to 11 states — mostly in the South and Southwest.

In the last month, RSV infections rose sharply in some parts of the country, nearly filling hospital emergency departments in Georgia, Texas and some other states. But “we think we’re near the peak of RSV season or will be in the next week or so,” Cohen said.

RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus is a common cause of mild coldlike symptoms but it can be dangerous for infants and older people.

Cohen was asked about pneumonia cases in children reported in Massachusetts and in Warren County, Ohio, near Cincinnati. There are a number of possible causes of the lung infection, and it can be a complication of COVID-19, flu, or RSV.

In Ohio, health officials have reported 145 cases since August and most of the children recovered at home. The illnesses were caused by a variety of common viruses and bacteria, officials said.

Massachusetts health officials said there’s been a modest increase in pneumonia in kids but that it is appropriate for the season.

China recently had a surge in respiratory illnesses which health officials there attributed to the flu and other customary causes.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Wednesday it will release doses of prescription flu medicine from the Strategic National Stockpile to states as flu-sickened patients continue to flock to hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country.

This year’s flu season has hit hard and early. Some people are even noticing bare shelves at pharmacies and grocery stores when they make a run for over-the-counter medicines as cases have spiked. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the flu has resulted in 150,000 hospitalizations and 9,300 deaths so far this season.

“Jurisdictions will be able to get the support they need to keep Americans healthy as flu cases rise this winter,” Dawn O’Connell, an assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the CDC, said in a statement.

States will be able to request doses of the prescription flu medication Tamiflu kept in the Strategic National Stockpile from HHS. The administration is not releasing how many doses will be made available. Antiviral medications were released from the stockpile more than a decade ago during the H1N1, also known as swine flu, pandemic.

Last week, the federal agency also announced it would allow states to dip into statewide stockpiles for Tamiflu, making millions of treatment courses available. Tamiflu can be prescribed to treat flu in people over the age of 2 weeks old.

This flu season is coming on the heels of a nasty spike of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, cases in children and just as COVID-19 cases are climbing — again.

Spot shortages of over-the-counter pain relievers and medicines have been reported at stores around the country, particularly for children.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf hosted conversations Tuesday with leaders representing pharmaceutical companies to discuss how manufacturers are working to keep in-demand remedies available. The companies told the agencies that they are not seeing widespread shortages. Meanwhile, major drug makers like Johnson & Johnson and Perrigo report their production lines are running around the clock.

Pharmacies, however, are limiting purchases of certain medicines, the Associated Press reported Monday. CVS Health, for example, has placed a two-product limit on all children’s pain relief products bought through its pharmacies or online. Walgreens is limiting customers online to six purchases of children’s over-the-counter fever reducing products.

The FDA has not reported a shortage of Tamiflu. However, the federal agency says the prescription antibiotic amoxicillin is in short supply due to increased demand.

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New research warns that the United States could experience a severe influenza outbreak after public health measures like face masks and social distancing are lifted. These measures have protected people from COVID-19 and influenza—incidence of influenza declined 60 percent during the first ten weeks following the implementation of the measures—but is also leading to greater numbers of Americans susceptible to the flu as immunity to the virus wanes.

The findings by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health are published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The use of public health measures like face masks and social distancing has declined substantially since the 2020/2021 flu seasons, although not yet to pre-pandemic levels. To what extent the flu might reassert itself in the U.S. this winter likely hinges on how much these behaviors continue.

“In the short term, measures to control the spread of the coronavirus will likely continue to suppress the number of influenza infections, but after these measures are relaxed, with greater population-wide immune susceptibility to influenza could lead to a large outbreak,” says senior author Sen Pei, PhD, assistant professor of environmental health sciences. “This year, it’s more important than ever to get your flu shot. While we’re rightly focused on protecting ourselves against COVID-19, we shouldn’t forget about the flu, which can be fatal.”

Pei and colleagues used a computer model of influenza A/H1 and B, which circulated in early 2020, to quantify the reduction of incidence and transmission after the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) in most states on March 15, 2020. NPIs include travel restrictions, face masks, social distancing, public education on prevention measures, and school closures. They also projected influenza transmission at the national scale over the next five years. The model used data from the CDC FluView website.

A LARGE OUTBREAK FOLLOWED BY YEARS OF SEVERE FLU SEASONS

According to the model’s projections, as public health measures are relaxed, a large-scale influenza outbreak will likely take place. In subsequent seasons, outbreaks will also be elevated, gradually return to pre-pandemic levels. Over the last decade, U.S. influenza deaths ranged from 12,000 in 2011-12 to 61,000 in 2017-2018. “Our projections show that the downstream, ripple-effects of pandemic public health measures could persist for a number of years,” says Pei

HOW BAD COULD THE FLU OUTBREAK BE?

It could be really bad. The longer the control measures are in place before they are lifted, the greater the number of individuals who will be susceptible to an influenza infection—a situation that could lead to a more severe outbreak in parts of the country that had high levels of adherence to masking and other public health measures during the pandemic. Additionally, the researchers anticipate that the global suppression of influenza activity during the pandemic may make it difficult to predict future circulating strains to inform the production of influenza vaccines. As a result, vaccine effectiveness might be reduced. Furthermore, suppression of influenza during the pandemic could lead to a surge of multiple influenza strains, including the A/H3 strain which has a high mortality rate and hasn’t been widely circulating since the 2018-2019 season. All these factors would contribute to a more severe outbreak.

Or maybe not. The suppression of influenza during the 10-week study period could be overstated in the data due to people’s reluctance to seek medical care for non-emergencies during the pandemic. Another question is whether or not antigenic escape (viral mutations that allow it to evade the immune system) rather than waning immunity is the predominant mechanism in the accumulation of population susceptibility to influenza. If so, influenza would have less opportunity to mutate while public health measures are in place. A more durable influenza immunity would also result in fewer people being susceptible to influenza when public health measures are lifted. All these possibilities would contribute to a less severe outbreak.

REGIONAL VARIATION IN 2020 FLU ACTIVITY

During the study period, changes in Influenza A activity over a simulated season without NFTs varied by public health region, from a reduction of 68 percent in Region 3 (Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) to 88 percent in Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio). Reductions in Influenza B activity ranged from 32 percent in Region 1 (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont) to 91 percent in Region 7 (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska). Unusually, Region 2 (New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) saw an increase in influenza incidence—an outcome the authors attribute to elevated medical visits early on in the pandemic that detected influenza cases that would have otherwise gone undetected. Due to this bias, the authors excluded Region 2 from their projections.

The study’s first author is Yuchen Qi, former MS student in biostatistics. Jeffrey Shaman, professor of environmental health sciences, is a co-author.

Their research was supported by the National Science Foundation (DMS-2027369) and a gift from the Morris-Singer Foundation.

Shaman and Columbia University disclose partial ownership of SK Analytics. Shaman discloses consulting for BNI. Other authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a guide to clarify the symptoms of each disease

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – the agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services – released a chart so people can tell the difference between the symptoms of Coronavirus and the common cold.

The US government, like all countries in the world, is concerned about the spread of the pandemic that has already left 47 dead and more than 2,000 infected in that nation alone. One of the problems is that the Coronavirus has symptoms very similar to those of the common cold, the flu, or allergies.

The CDC released a chart to differentiate symptoms. The first thing to ask yourself is if the person has a fever. If you have, and experience shortness of breath, you should see your doctor because it could be Coronavirus. Other symptoms of this pandemic are cough, fatigue, and weakness. If the answer is that you don’t experience shortness of breath, you could get the flu. Other flu symptoms are cough, fatigue and weakness as well.

Another question to ask yourself, the CDC says, is whether the person has irritated eyes. If that happens, it could be an allergy. Other allergy symptoms are sneezing and a runny nose. Meanwhile, if you don’t have irritated eyes, it could be a common cold. Other symptoms of a cold are sneezing, a runny nose, and mild chest discomfort.

(Coronavirus, flu, cold or allergy?)

CORONAVIRUS 2019 – nCoV: The disease

What are the symptoms?

Some infected people do not show any symptoms, while for others, the symptoms can be severe, even fatal.

These are common symptoms that can vary from person to person and that only a doctor can diagnose.

In dialogue with Infobae, Gerardo Laube, a pediatrician, infectologist and teacher at the Faculty of Medicine of the Inter-American Open University (UAI), stated that the person should present a fever picture as a starting point. If you don’t have it, you should rest easy. If you also have a respiratory problem, you should immediately consult the doctor, who is the only one authorized to determine if the patient has a virus and what the diagnosis is.

Laube maintained that if he presents these problems, the doctor must establish the patient’s history there, if he has any previous pathology and, most importantly, if he was in countries where the virus circulated: China, Italy, Spain, the United States and the rest of the places that are already known. If it was not, it might be a picture of what we know as influenza. That is why medical evaluation is essential, said the professional.

According to the World Health Organization, in the event of any decline and feverish symptoms or coughing, it is essential to consult the doctor and explain where he was or with whom in the last hours or days. In addition, it lists fever, cough, malaise, headache, and difficulty breathing as symptoms of the disease.

Jorge Salas Hernández, general director of the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) of Mexico, reiterated that the symptoms of the Coronavirus are very similar to a picture of influenza; therefore, people could saturate public and private hospitals; however, there is a way to tell the difference. “The symptoms are very similar, but what will make the difference to guide the diagnosis are these two factors: staying in a high-risk city or contact with patients confirmed with COVID-19,” stressed the specialist.

The new Coronavirus has caused at least 5,402 deaths worldwide since it appeared in December, according to a balance established by the AFP news agency based on official sources, this Saturday at 09:00 GMT. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 143,400 cases of contagion were counted in 135 countries or territories.

It is important to note that the number of officially registered cases does not 100% reflect reality, as there are countries with different diagnostic and accounting criteria. From Friday, March 13, at 5:00 pm. GMT 55 new deaths and 2,677 infections were registered worldwide.

Mainland China (not counting Hong Kong and Macao), where the epidemic broke out in late December, registered 80,824 people infected, of whom 3,189 died and 65,541 were completely healed. In the last 24 hours, there have been 11 new cases and 13 deaths.

In the rest of the world, on Saturday, March 14, at 9:00 GMT, there were a total of 2,213 deaths (42 more than the day before) and 62,583 cases (2,665 new infections).

After China, the most affected countries are Italy, with 2,503 deaths and 31,506 cases, Iran with 988 deaths (15,618 cases), Spain with 533 deaths (11,826 cases), and France, with 175 deaths (7,730 infections) – as of March 17, 2020, at 4 pm.

From Friday, March 13, at 5:00 pm. GMT, Ecuador announced its first virus-related deaths. Kosovo, Mauritania, Uruguay, Suriname, Guatemala, Antigua and Barbuda, Namibia, Puerto Rico and Guinea announced their first infections.

On Friday, March 13 at 5:00 pm. GMT, and since the beginning of the epidemic, Asia had 91,346 infections (3,299 deaths); Europe, 36,399 (1,514), Middle East, 12,475 (527); United States and Canada, 2,350 (48); Latin America and the Caribbean, 388 (5); Oceania, 244 (3) and Africa, 205 (6).

This balance was made using data from national authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO).

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