Each flu season seems to have some kind of surprise in store for parents and pediatricians.
Last year, the big surprise was that there wasn't a shortage of flu shots. Before that of course, there was the emergence of swine flu and the swine flu pandemic.
The other big surprise last year was the early, widespread availability of flu shots and the availability of over 155 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine.
This year, of course, the big surprise is that flu season got such a late start and that it has been so mild.
Flu Season
Whether you are concerned about seasonal flu or H1N1, parents should take steps to help avoid the flu to keep their family from getting sick. In addition to getting a flu vaccine, this can include frequent hand washing, avoiding close contact with people who are sick with the flu, disinfecting contaminated surfaces, including toys and kitchen counter-tops.
Flu vaccine recommendations for the 2011-12 flu season didn't change much from last year. Experts still recommend the vaccination of all people who are at least six months old. In fact, this year's flu vaccine includes the same three strains of flu virus as the 2010-11 flu vaccine. Since "postvaccination antibody titer decline over the course of a year," everyone still needs to get a flu vaccine this year though. The availability of 166 million doses should make that easy too.
And children who are less than nine years of age, still need two doses of the flu vaccine if this will be the first time that they are getting vaccinated. The only big difference in this year's recommendation is that kids who didn't get two doses of flu vaccine last year won't need two doses this year. Previously, if you only got one dose your first year, you still needed to get two doses the next year. This year, if you only got one dose of flu vaccine last year, you will only need one dose this year.
Remember that kids can get vaccinated as soon as flu vaccine is available, which makes this a great time to get a flu shot, or the nasal spray flu vaccine (FluMist).
Flu Season Activity Reports
This year's flu season is got a late start. As of late-April, the CDC reports that "flu activity in the United States is low right now."
Keep in mind that the CDC also says that "while most of the United States has returned to summer flu baseline activity levels, there are a few exceptions."
Only two states, Alaska and New York, are still reporting widespread flu activity.
Nine states, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Oregon, are now reporting regional flu activity and twelve states (Alabama, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming) are now reporting local flu activity.
Additionally, twenty-seven states are now reporting sporadic flu activity, and no states are reporting no flu activity.
Google's Flu Trends, which relates flu searches in an area to how many people are actually sick with the flu, is still reporting a low level of flu activity in the United States. Remember that Google Flu Trends is supposed to 'estimate flu activity faster than traditional systems,' like the CDC and based on their scale, flu activity has begun to decrease below the moderate level we saw for most of the winter.
Knowing where there is flu activity can be helpful, because if you have classic flu symptoms in an area where there are a lot of flu infections, especially widespread or intense flu infections, then you likely have the flu and should see your doctor right away if your child is a candidate for one of the flu medications, such as Tamiflu or Relenza.
Flu Deaths
Each year, the flu is reported to be responsible for almost 36,000 deaths, including about 46 to 74 deaths in children. In the 2009-10 flu season, 281 deaths in children were reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
There were 122 pediatric deaths from flu during the 2010-2011 flu season.
There have been 20 pediatric flu deaths during the 2011-2012 flu season.
Sources:
CDC. FluView. 2011-2012 Influenza Season Week 17 ending April 28, 2012.
CDC. Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine
CDC. Prevention and Control of Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2011. MMWR. August 26, 2011 / 60(33);1128-1132
