Tag - Health Intelligence

Influenza Update Week Ending 3-24-2018

Influenza (FLU) Update for Week #12 Week Ending 3-24-18 Although Flu and ILI remained elevated above the national baseline respectively, they each continued to decrease last week.  Week #12 was the sixth week with decreases in FLU/ILI indicators.  The peak of the season occurred when ILI was at a high of 7.5%, which occurred during Week #5, ending 2/3/18. On average for the past five Flu seasons, ILI remained at/above the national baseline for 16 weeks; 20 weeks was the longest.  This...

Influenza Update Week Ending 3-17-2018

Influenza (FLU) Update for Week #11 Week Ending 3-17-18 Although Flu and ILI is still fairly widespread and above the national baseline, respectively, Week #11 was the fifth week with significant decreases in most flu indicators.  The peak of the season was when ILI was at a high of 7.5%, which occurred during Week #5, ending 2/3/18.  On average for the past five Flu seasons, ILI has remained at/above the national baseline for 16 weeks; 20 weeks is the longest.  This...

Influenza Update Week Ending 3-10-2018

Influenza (FLU) Update for Week #10 Week Ending 3-10-18 Although Flu and ILI is still fairly widespread and above the national baseline, respectively, Week #10 was the fourth week with significant decreases in most flu indicators.  The peak of the season was when ILI was at a high of 7.5%, which occurred during Week #5, ending 2/3/18.  On average for the past five Flu seasons, ILI has remained at/above the national baseline for 16 weeks; 20 weeks is the longest.  This...

Influenza Update Week Ending 3-3-2018

Influenza (FLU) Update for Week #9 Week Ending 3-3-18 Although Flu and ILI are still fairly widespread and above the national baseline, respectively, Week #9 was the third week with significant decreases in most flu indicators. The peak of the season was when ILI was at a high of 7.5%, which occurred during Week #5, ending 2/3/18. The one indicator that showed increases in all the reported ages was in hospitalizations for Flu and Pneumonia. This indicator should...

Influenza Update Week Ending 2-17-2018

Influenza (FLU) Update for Week #7 Week Ending 2-17-18 The CDC reported that although there were multiple indicators suggesting that the flu season has hopefully peaked, flu activity is still widespread throughout the United States and, ILI, although lower, remains higher than the peaks of ILI activity in previous flu seasons. Diagnosed flu cases have also decreased slightly. Hospitalizations for this flu season are still outpacing those of the 2014-15 flu season which was considered highly severe and...

Influenza Update Week Ending 2-03-2018

Week ending 2-3-18 The CDC reported that influenza activity (diagnosed flu and Influenza-Like-Illness) increased once again.  Levels have met or exceeded flu and ILI markers from flu seasons over the last decade, including the 2009 Pandemic of H1N1.  Although Week #5 is the 11th week of substantial flu activity, and flu activity would normally have peaked by now, that is not the case and the CDC suggests that flu activity may go on for as long as 20 weeks. The only...

Influenza Update Week Ending 1-27-2018

Week ending 1-27-18 The CDC reported that influenza (Flu) activity, including diagnosed flu and Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI), increased again;  there was no indication that flu/ILI was waning.  All but two states, Hawaii and Oregon reported widespread flu activity.  There was an increase in the number of states that reported high ILI levels again, nearing the levels seen during the 2009 Pandemic.  The rate of hospitalizations for this flu season is greater than that seen during the most recent severe flu season of...

Influenza Update Week Ending 1-20-2018

Week ending 1-20-18 TThe CDC reported that influenza (Flu) activity, including diagnosed flu and Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI), increased again. All states reported widespread flu activity except for Hawaii, and ILI levels also increased. This indicates that this flu season is a severe one – at, or just below -- the data seen in the most recent highly severe flu season of 2014-15. Deaths associated with flu have reached system-specific epidemic thresholds. The dominating flu subtype remained A H3N2, which is typically a...

Influenza Update Week Ending 1-13-2018

Week #56 (ending 1-13-18) The CDC reported that influenza (Flu) activity, including diagnosed flu and Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI), increased again. All states reported widespread flu activity except for Hawaii and ILI also increased. This indicated that this flu season is a severe one – at, or just below -- the data seen in the most recent severe flu season of 2014-15. Deaths associated with flu have reached system-specific epidemic thresholds. The dominating flu subtype continued to be A H3N2, typically a more...

Influenza Update Week Ending 1-6-2018

Week #55 (ending 1-6-18) The CDC reported that influenza (Flu) activity, including diagnosed flu as well as Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI), increased again and all states reported widespread activity except for Hawaii. The flu and ILI data reported so far matches up with data points from the 2014-15 season which had high severity. The CDC also suggested that it is likely that the peak of the flu season has or soon will occur but flu will probably continue for several more weeks. The dominating...

Influenza Update Week Ending 12-30-2017

Week #52 (ending 12-30-17) the CDC reported that influenza (Flu) activity, including diagnosed flu as well as Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI) sharply increased for this week. The dominating flu subtype continued to be A H3N2. This continued the trend of an early flu season with a typically more severe subtype of flu dominating and the possibility of increased complications. Although the highest risk for complications & hospitalizations is usually in those 65 years or older and in younger children, there have been...

In the News: HAN Influenza Advisory

CDC has released a Health Advisory from their Health Alert Network:https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/han00409.asp Due to the rapid rise in cases of flu and recent past history when the predominantly circulating flu strain was H3N2, the CDC wants to remind health care providers (HCP) to keep influenza in mind as a diagnosis when presented with signs and symptoms that could be flu https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/index.html Download the Full Update

Influenza Update Week Ending 12-30-2017

Week #52 (ending 12-30-17) the CDC reported that influenza (Flu) activity, including diagnosed flu as well as Influenza-Like-Illness (ILI) sharply increased for this week. The dominating flu subtype continued to be A H3N2. This continued the trend of an early flu season with a typically more severe subtype of flu dominating and the possibility of increased complications. Although the highest risk for complications & hospitalizations is usually in those 65 years or older and in younger children, there...

Influenza Update Week Ending 12-23-2017

Earlier in this flu season, the CDC posted an expectation that this flu season (2017-18) would likely start early and be more severe (as it was last year) than previous few flu seasons. This prediction was made based on the severe flu season that Australia was experiencing and since Influenza A H3N2 was the predominant strain. Flu seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are often good predictors of North American flu seasons since there winter occurs during our summer. This...