NEW YORK (AP) – February is usually the peak of the flu season, with doctors’ offices and hospitals full of suffering patients. But not this year.
The flu has virtually disappeared from the United States, with reports appearing at much lower levels than anything seen in decades.
Experts say measures taken to combat coronavirus – wearing a mask, social distancing and virtual schooling – have been an important factor in preventing a “twindemia”. of influenza and COVID-19. An impetus to get more people vaccinated against the flu has probably helped as well, as have fewer people traveling, they say.
Another possible explanation: the coronavirus essentially has muscle aside from the flu and other bugs that are more common in the fall and winter. Scientists do not fully understand the mechanism behind this, but it would be consistent with patterns observed when certain flu strains predominate over others, said Dr. Arnold Monto, an influenza expert at the University of Michigan.
Nationally, “this is the lowest flu season we’ve had,” according to a 25-year-old surveillance system, said Lynnette Brammer of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitals say the usual steady flow of flu patients has never materialized.
At Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state’s largest hospital, “we saw zero documented cases of the flu this winter,” said Dr. Nate Mick, head of the emergency department.
The same goes for Oregon’s capital, where outpatient respiratory clinics affiliated with Salem Hospital have not seen confirmed cases of the flu.
“It’s beautiful,” said Dr. Michelle Rasmussen of the health care system.
The numbers are staggering, given that the flu has long been the nation’s biggest threat to infectious diseases. In recent years, he has been charged with 600,000 to 800,000 hospitalizations a year and 50,000 to 60,000 deaths.
Globally, influenza activity has been at very low levels in China, Europe and other parts of the northern hemisphere. And this follows reports of low flu in South Africa, Australia and other countries in the winter months of the southern hemisphere. from May to August.
Of course, the story was different with the coronavirus, which killed more than 500,000 people in the United States. COVID-19 cases and deaths peaked again in December and January, before a recent decline began.
Influenza-related hospitalizations, however, are a small part of where they would stay even during a very mild season, said Brammer, who oversees the CDC’s surveillance of the virus.
Influenza death data for the entire US population are difficult to compile quickly, but CDC officials keep a steady number of child deaths. So far, a pediatric flu death has been reported this season, compared to 92 reported at the same point last year’s flu season.
“Many parents will tell you that this year their children have been as healthy as ever, because they do not swim in the germ pool at school or day care as in previous years,” said Mick.
Some doctors say they even stopped sending specimens for testing because they don’t think the flu is present. However, many labs use a multiplex test developed by the CDC that checks specimens for both coronavirus and influenza, Brammer said.
More than 190 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed “This season, however, the number of infections is so low that it is difficult for the CDC to make an annual calculation of how well the vaccine works,” Brammer said. There just isn’t enough data, she said.
This is also a challenge for next season’s flu vaccine planning. Such activity usually begins by checking for flu strains circulating around the world and predicting which of them will likely predominate next year.
“But there aren’t a lot of (flu) viruses to watch,” Brammer said.
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