Nearly Half Of US Reporting Widespread Flu

January 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment

January 6, 2014
Reuters (1/4, Lopes) reported that on Friday, the CDC said widespread influenza activity is being reported by nearly half of the United States, with most cases being attributed to the H1N1 virus. Dr. Joe Bresee, chief of Epidemiology and Prevention in the CDC’s Influenza Division, commented, “We are seeing a big uptick in disease in the past couple of weeks. The virus is all around the United States right now.”

ABC World News (1/3, story 6, 1:15, Sawyer) on Friday reported that “the flu is now hitting hard and spreading fast.” NBC Nightly News (1/3, story 4, 2:25, Williams) also reported this story in its Friday broadcast.

The AP (1/6) reports from Portland, Oregon that the state “is seeing a spike in flu hospitalizations and other signs that this year’s flu season may be more aggressive than the last few years.” Oregon Health Authority spokesman Jonathan Modie urged, “It’s not too late to get vaccinated. That’s the big message.”
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CDC: Influenza may be fatal even in healthy kids

October 28, 2013 By

October 28, 2013
CDC Flu danger to kidsUSA Today (10/28, Hellmich, 5.82M) reports that, according to research to appear in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics, influenza “can be fatal to children, even healthy kids who don’t have other medical conditions.” Investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that “830 kids died from flu-related complications between October 2004 and September 2012, and most of those children had not gotten a flu vaccine.” According to CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, “All too often, people dismiss flu as a mild illness, but every year, children, including healthy children, die from flu.”

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