Posted on 04/18/2008 6:18:11 AM PDT by blam
CDC: Flu season worst in 4 years; vaccine didn't work well
Published: 4/17/08, 7:45 PM EDT
By MIKE STOBBE
ATLANTA (AP) - The current flu season has shaped up to be the worst in four years, partly because the vaccine didn't work well against the viruses that made most people sick, health officials said Thursday.
This season's vaccine was the worst match since 1997-1998, when the vaccine didn't work at all against the circulating virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 2007-2008 season started slowly, peaked in mid-February and seems to be declining, although cases are still being reported, CDC officials said.
Based on adult deaths from flu and pneumonia, this season is the worst since 2003-2004 - another time when the vaccine did not include the exact flu strain responsible for most illnesses.
Each year, health officials - making essentially an educated guess - formulate a vaccine against three viruses they think will be circulating. They guess well most of the time, and the vaccine is often between 70 and 90 percent effective.
But this year, two of the three strains were not good matches and the vaccine was only 44 percent effective, according to a study done in Marshfield, Wis. That seemed to match the experience in other parts of the country.
"We've had a pretty heavy season, both adult and pediatric. And there were a good number of cases - more than usual - who had received a vaccination," said Dr. Niranjan Bhat, a children's infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
The CDC compares flu season by looking at adult deaths from the flu or pneumonia in 122 cities. This year, those deaths peaked at 9 percent of all reported deaths in early March, and remained above an epidemic threshold for 13 consecutive weeks. In 2003-2004, they peaked at more than 10 percent of all deaths, and surpassed the epidemic threshold for nine weeks.
"Our season is not quite as high but is lasting a little longer," said Dr. Dan Jernigan, deputy director of the CDC's influenza division.
Pediatric deaths are another way flu seasons are compared. So far this season, 66 children died, including 46 who were not vaccinated. In 2003-2004, 153 children died.
Each year, the flu results in 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths, according to official estimates. The elderly, young children and people with chronic illnesses are considered at greatest risk.
The CDC started working with the Marshfield Clinic in central Wisconsin to get a better gauge of vaccine effectiveness while a flu season was in progress. Almost the entire population in the Marshfield area - about 50,000 people - gets health care at clinic offices, which has complete vaccination and electronic medical records.
This year, most of the illness has been due to Type A H3N2 Brisbane strain, which was not in the vaccine. That strain tends to cause more hospitalizations and deaths, contributing to this season's severity, CDC officials said.
Type B Florida strain, also absent from this year's vaccine, has also been causing illness. Marshfield data showed that the vaccine was completely ineffective against the Type B virus, and was 58 percent effective against the Brisbane virus.
Jernigan acknowledged that some people may lose faith in the flu vaccine and skip it next year. But he noted even this year's mismatched vaccine still offered 44 percent protection overall and likely reduced the severity of illness in those who got the flu.
The Marshfield study and a flu season update are being published this week in a CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
More evidence of Global Warming?
Hmph. I never had the vaccine, or the flu. After HS, the only times I recall getting the flu were when my doctor gave me the vaccine.
Lest we forget. Hillary’s! role and that of her HINO (Husband in Name Only), in the vaccine shortage in years past:
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/2003/pd081803e.html
The last vaccine I got was for the Swine flu, mandatory for all reservists. Swine flu never happened but I was sick all winter.
Wow, the worst in 4 years? Four whole years???
I have a question for the medical/science folks out there. Why is it when I tell a doctor that I've had my spleen out since I was 18 the first thing they ask me is ‘do I get a pneumonia vaccine yearly’?
Should I?
I was sick for six weeks in Feb/March. It wasn’t the flu, but bad sinus/chest stuff. Sickest I’ve been in years. And I had a flu shot.
Can you imagine if US animal handling and sanitation practices routinely shipped deadly viruses all across the globe? What kind of outcry would there be? How much condemnation would we face from the UN and WHO? How much in reparations would we be asked to pay?
“So far this season, 66 children died, including 46 who were not vaccinated.”
So let’s examine this info.
20 Children DIED THAT WERE VACCINATED.
And without knowing how many were vaccinated the media again fails to tell the whole story.
But for me, the few years that I've gotten one (either from not knowing any better, or having an employer 'strongly suggest' it), I've been sick all winter long. Never got the flu, just one $#^$^$# cold after another. Unrelenting misery.
Now, I pass on the shot. And I don't work in a hospital anymore, so there's no armtwisting to get one.
Do you know for sure that it wasn’t the flu?
Could it be that doctors are told to call it something else when they know you’ve had the flu shot.
“Don’t trust and always verify.”
That’s me and my husband right now. Chest congestion, coughing, weak, just terrible. Taking a long time for the residue to disappear. One day we are up and the next day we are down. Geeez. Been on antibiotics for the last 10 days.
Clearly Bush’s fault.
It didn’t work too well? NO F***ING KIDDING!!!
Yep. Exactly what happened to me. When I started feeling better, WHAM, I was sick again. I was on three rounds of antibiotics over six weeks. My sinus infection was so bad, it was coming out of my eyes. Haven’t had that since childhood.
Finally, after 5 or 6 weeks, you'd be waiting for it's next little surprise but it never came...it was gone.
Damn annoying. I'd rather just be miserable for 4 days and dose myself up with NyQuil.
“Bush pulled funding from flu vaccine research blah blah blah” ~ Any idiot liberal
Never had a flu shot and never got the flu.
I never even heard of flu shots till I moved to the west coast from NYC.
And damn, I felt like I couldn't get enough sleep even though I slept all the time. Looked like hell too.
>>the only times I recall getting the flu were when my doctor gave me the vaccine.<<
ME too!
I had my spleen removed when I was 12, and had pnuemo vaccs through my teen years. I was told I didn't need them as an adult, unless I had some otehr condition that compromised my immune system, and that I might consider getting them again when I was elderly.
That was some time ago, 20 years approx, so advice may have changed since then.
Sounds kind of like mono, not the flu.
Same here in Riverside, Calif. Still feeling punk since it hit us in October.
That's exactly what everyone in my family has had/have here in Atlanta.
Also got blood work done - Vitamin D levels were way down, (not much sunshine up here on the Oregon Coast this winter),so am now on massive Vitamin D supplements for 10 weeks.
Now, I'm having intestinal problems, wondering if it's the VitD :-(
I never had a flu shot either, and will continue to just take my chances on letting my body deal with whatever comes along. I used to have at least one cold or flu illness a year while teaching. Since I retired, I have not even had a cold. :)
But what do I know....it may have been a weird strain of mono. However, no one I know that saw a doctor for it turned up with a diagnosis of mono.
We had a long discussion thread on vitamin D and the flu back in November.
I did some reading on the various references provided qnd began taking the recommended 2000 units per day. I have not had a sniffle and at times feel extroidianaraly good. I have experienced no side effects.
The sun will be out for sure by early may and I will cease till next October or November.
Oh gosh, I feel bad complaining considering what you all had and your daughter as well. Get better. I am waiting for the warmth to get here too. I am normally a cold weather person but this year I just want to feel the nice warm sun penetrating our systems as we relax on our deck. It’s time. :) Get better!!!
Yep, they did xrays to see if I had walking pneumonia but it was negative. And yes, it’s probably the Vit D. :)
Well, I guess it just takes time for it to get out of the system. It’s been a wild year. Take care and get better soon.
I did manage to get very sick last year and landed in the hospital. While I was in the hospital, I caught pneumonia.
After 5 total days in the hospital, and a plethora of tests daily, the still didn't know why I got sick, but they were sure it wasn't the flu.
Medicine isn't an exact science. However, in my experience the flu shot helps. It doesn't create a miracles invulnerability to illness, but other than the one serious illness, most of my sick days from work are about 30% not feeling well, and 70% feeling like I need a stress free day away from work.
We have had the same symtoms for 5 weeks now. It’s a virus so anti-biotics are useless. This can turn into bronchitis.
I live in Arizona and every where there are people coughing. I told my husband we have the bird flu:)
May it be thus, O Lord, may it be thus, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray, Amen ...
She also screwed the businesses that made the vaccines by price fixing. There was no economic incentive for them to produce vaccines and some of the labs actually shut down production.
Her goal was the usual Socialist “redistribution of wealth” but with vaccines, versus our tax dollars; basically, a dry run for her ascension to The Throne. ;)
Not a doctor, but I would not if you are otherwise healthy. I’d probably spend more money on good foods, vitamins, immune-boosting herbs and such. Keeping you gut healthy and your liver and kidneys clean and working well (and intestines) are the important things.
Thanks. I’m much older too. I also hate vaccines, think I’ll pass for now.
My whole office in San Francisco has had that same thing, too. I'm currently in week four. It's not debilitating enough to warrant staying out of work (except for the two day sleep) - just annoying.
Maybe not - intestinal problems seem to go along with this particular virus, though they come and go and were worse for me near the beginning.
This is exactly why I have not and will not get a flippin’ flu shot !!!!!!
The missus and I both got hammered by the flu recently. She’s stil lgot it and I’m slowly coming out of it. And yes, it’s the sickest we’ve been in years. Naty respiratory stuff. And a real energy-sapper.
Woo-hoo! I got both the flu and pneumonia.
Doing my best to get the averages up. ;-)
Enter splenectomy immunocompromised into your preferred search engine. I got 29,100 hits on Yahoo.
Should I?
You're immunocompromised. What do you think.?
Had pneumonia 4 years ago. A great way to loose nearly 15 pounds in two weeks but it nearly killed me. Had so many bouts with pneumonia and scarlet fever as a young child I thought I had enough immunity. Better give it a second thought.
The guidelines for an adult without a spleen are an initial Pneumovax followed by a repeat in 5 years; you don’t need one yearly. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/wk/mm5641-Immunization.pdf
The flu vaccine, though, is given yearly.
The reason is that the spleen “filters” bacteria, and produces antibodies. So being without a spleen places you at higher risk for infection. The vaccine will help lower that risk specifically for pneumococcal infection.
It’s a safe vaccine, as it’s been out for a long time, and in all my years in the field (I’m a RN), I’ve not seen any major problems. I had the Pneumovax 3 years ago before I was placed on the transplant list.
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