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Last Year’s Flu Season

Vincent Iannelli, MD

Breaking News: Flu season is essentially over. (see below)

Flu activity is decreasing, but remains elevated in most of the United States.

While flu season typically peaks in February, it is very important to understand that there are few things that are typical about the flu.

Since 1982, while we have been twice as likely to see a flu activity peak in February than other winter months, we have been just as likely to get that peak in December, January, or March. That makes it important to get your flu vaccine as soon as you can.

You really never know if it is going to be an early, average, or late flu season.

Flu Facts

There will likely be some surprises this flu season – there always are – but there are some things that you can unfortunately count on.

Among these flu facts include that:

And even in a mild flu season, a lot of kids get sick with the flu.

What about reports that the flu shot will be only 10% effective?

Don’t believe them. The flu vaccine works and besides, it has many benefits beyond keeping you from getting the flu

Last Year’s Flu Season

When does flu season start?

In general, flu season starts when you begin to see people around you with signs and symptoms of the flu, including fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and fatigue, etc. To be more accurate, you can also look at reports for flu activity in your area, especially the weekly reports from the CDC. Those flu reports can also help you determine when flu season ends.

It is obvious now that this is an early flu season. And with an H3N2 predominant strain, everyone should understand that is going to be a severe season.

Worst season ever? Probably not. But this season is starting to live up to some of the hype, as influenza-like-illness (ILI) activity is at 7.5% and is approaching the 7.7 peak of the 2009 pandemic and the overall hospitalization rate is higher than the overall hospitalization rate reported during the same week of the 2014-2015 season.

That leaves the next big questions – when will flu season peak and when will it be over?

As of mid-June, the CDC reports that flu activity is low in most parts of the United States.

The CDC has also recently reported that:

Are you going to get your kids a flu vaccine next year?

“CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get an injectable flu vaccine as soon as possible.”

CDC Influenza Situation Update

Flu season is essentially over, although like many other flu seasons, we will likely continue to see some flu activity throughout the spring and summer months.

And remember that while this is certainly a very bad flu season, it is still comparable to other recent H3N2 seasons, especially the 2012-13 and 2014-15 seasons.

Recent Flu Seasons

Are H3N2 predominant flu seasons really worse than others?

In addition to high levels of pediatric flu deaths, the CDC reports that the four flu seasons that were H3N2-predominant in recent years were “the four seasons with the highest flu-associated mortality levels in the past decade.”

For More Information on the 2017-18 Flu Season

Updated July 6, 2018

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