Editor’s observe: See chilly and flu exercise in your location with the WebMD tracker.
Jan. 9, 2023 – New instances of the flu in the US proceed to say no as flu-related outpatient visits to medical doctors places of work and hospitals fell for the fifth straight week as 2022 ended, in accordance with the newest CDC information.
Whereas excellent news, the variety of hospital admissions for flu and flu-like sicknesses held regular.
Outpatient visits for flu-like sickness made up 5.4% of all visits to well being care suppliers through the week of Dec. 25-31, in accordance with information from the CDC’s Outpatient Influenza-like Sickness Surveillance Community. That’s down from 6.0% the earlier week and down from what looks as if a seasonal peak of seven.5% in late November, primarily based on the CDC Influenza Division’s newest FluView report.
The CDC’s surveillance community defines influenza-like sickness as fever plus cough or sore throat, not laboratory-confirmed flu, so the information contains different respiratory sicknesses reminiscent of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). However the language within the FluView report makes it clear that the CDC places the emphasis on the flu.
State-level information confirms the nationwide drop: Solely 12 jurisdictions have been at “very excessive” flu exercise for the week of Dec. 25-31, in contrast with 24 the week earlier than. (Jurisdictions embody the 50 states, in addition to territories, New York Metropolis, and the District of Columbia.) One other step down exhibits that the variety of metro areas with very excessive exercise fell from 59 to 37, the CDC stated.
Regardless of the declines in outpatient visits, hospital admissions remained proper round 19,000 for a second straight week after a 2-week downturn, primarily based on information from the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies Shield platform.One other measure not displaying enchancment was the proportion of deaths because of the flu, which was increased for Dec. 25-31 (1.63%) than both of the two earlier weeks (1.53% and 1.6%), in accordance with information from the Nationwide Middle for Well being Statistics that have been included within the CDC report.
Complete deaths through the 2022-23 flu season quantity round 14,000 up to now, with hospitalizations at 230,000 and sicknesses round 22 million. Among the many deaths reported through the newest week have been 13 in kids, and the overall quantity for the season is now at 74, the CDC stated.
