1. Effects
    Effects in New York  Effects in California  Effects in Washington state  Effects in Delaware  Effects in Minnesota 

2. Analysis of the flu season

3. References

The 2017–18 United States flu season refers to influenza activity taking place in the United States from late 2017 through early 2018.^[1]

The dominant strain of influenza was H3N2.^[2]

In all states except Hawaii and Oregon, the distribution of influenza was indicated as widespread, including 32 states that had high flu activity.^[2][4]

The flu season was exacerbated by a shortage of IV bags caused by IV bag plant closures in Puerto Rico following Hurricane María.^[3]

Effects

Across the United States, at least 30 children died by January 2018.^[2] In the South, schools were closed, and nursing homes were overloaded.^[2]

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began counting the 2017–2018 "flu season" as October 2017, and by early February 2018, the epidemic was still widespread and increasing overall. By February 2018, the CDC said that the circulating virus strains included both B strains (Yamagata and Victoria), H1N1 and H3N2.^[4] On February 10, 2018, Fortune reported that influenza in the United States was killing up to 4,000 Americans a week, likely to far outstrip the rate of deaths in the 2009–2010 season. An expert was quoted saying that the main time of the flu that year hadn't "changed enough from previous seasons to be considered a novel strain." In the first week of February, deaths from influenza and pneumonia were responsible for one of every ten deaths in the US, with 4,064 from pneumonia or influenza recorded in the third week of 2018, according to CDC data. The CDC also reported 63 child deaths at that point, half of which were not considered medically high risk, and only about 20 percent who were vaccinated.^[5][6] Only two of those deaths were babies under six months old.^[7]

On February 9, 2018, the CDC announced that the recent flu outbreak had killed at least 63 children.^[8]

Effects in New York

On February 10, 2018, officials in New York City confirmed the third pediatric flu death for the 2017–2018 season. The week prior, 43 states reported high patient traffic for the flu, with flu remaining widespread in each state except Hawaii and Oregon.^[9]

Effects in California

By February 9, 2018, the national rate for flu-like symptoms for patients visiting clinics had reached "well above" seven percent, a rate last seen during the H1N1 swine flu epidemic of 2009.^[13] According to the Los Angeles Times, 163 people under the age of 65 had died of the flu since October 2017, compared to 40 deaths during the same time period the previous year. Of those 163 deaths, 36 had died during the first week of February; the same article also noted that the peak of the flu season has apparently passed as reports of new cases have declined.^[14]

Effects in Washington state

On February 11, 2018, the Seattle Times reported that "things [were] improving" in Washington state. At the time, the state had seen 151 flu-related fatalities, lower than the total of 214 that time the year before.^[15]

Effects in Delaware

On February 12, 2018, Delaware announced that it had seen six deaths and 995 confirmed flu cases in seven days, making it the state's highest weekly total on record.^[16]

Effects in Minnesota

On February 11, 2018, United States Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota announced a new bill called the Flu Vaccine Act, calling for further research on a better vaccine at the US National Institutes of Health. At the time, there had been 400 outbreaks of flu that season in Minnesota's schools, and 130 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, with one child in the state dying. Additionally, Klobuchar continued to push the US Food and Drug Administration to fix the national IV bag and saline shortage, for adversely affecting the treatment of flu symptoms.^[17]

Analysis of the flu season

According to the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s influenza branch in January 2010, it was the first flu season where "we've had the entire continental US" show the same "widespread" flu activity, excluding the District of Columbia and Hawaii.^[18] Twenty-six of those states were classified by the CDC as having "high" activity in January 2018.^[19]

In January 2018, analyzing the reason for the spike, The Atlantic noted that the flu season was possibly worse because the dominant circulating strain was the H3N2 strain, which for unknown reasons tends to hit humans harder than other strains and result in worse flu seasons when dominate.^[18] Also, the H3N2 strain, according to the CDC, affects elderly and young children more than other strains, resulting in more severe hospitalizations and deaths.^[19]

In January 2018, The Atlantic also noted that the severity of the flu season in the United States may have been increased by a shortage of IV bags in hospitals. The shortage resulted from the Hurricane Maria blackout in Puerto Rico, where a great many medical supplies are manufactured. The article noted that hospitals normally go through hundreds of IV bags a day to replenish fluids and give drugs, but during the shortage, some hospitals had resorted to directly injecting drugs into the vein via an IV push.^[18]

References

• Ada, Countess of Lovelace
• ADAC Procar
• Ada (crater)
• Ada, Croatia
• Adactyla frankeniae
• Adactyla huebneri
• Adactyla paralia
• Adactyla sanctae helenae
• Adactylotis contaminaria
• A. dadah
• Adad-apla-iddina
• Adada, Rodolphe
• Adadeentem
• Adade Foli
• Ada den Haan
• Ada Developers Academy
• Adadevoh
• Adad, Iran
• Adadle
• Adad-nārārī I Epic
• Adado
• Adado, Paul
• Adad-salulu
• Adad-shuma-iddina
• Adad-shuma-usur