Flu numbers in US are down, but the season is not over

The United States is experiencing a significant downturn in its flu season, with government data released on Friday indicating two consecutive weeks of declining activity.

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), covering activity up to last week, revealed a substantial fall in flu-related hospital admissions.

There was also a notable, albeit smaller, reduction in medical appointments for flu-like symptoms.

Furthermore, the number of states reporting high flu activity decreased from 44 to 36. This positive trend is complemented by the absence of major surges in other prevalent winter illnesses, namely COVID-19 and RSV.

CDC officials are calling the current respiratory virus season “moderate.” But that doesn't mean the season is over, especially for flu. Second surges in flu activity often occur after the winter holidays.

“We've had other seasons where we've had a peak, it's gone down, but we've nonetheless had a prolonged season," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

“Most of us are crossing our fingers,” he added. ”But I don't think we can rely on the concept that flu is abating very early this year."

Medical experts have worried about this season because it has been dominated by a kind of flu virus, called A H3N2, that historically causes the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people.

Even more concerning, about 90 percent of the H3N2 infections analyzed this season were a new strain that differs from the version accounted for in this year’s flu shots.

So far this season, there have been at least 18 million flu illnesses and 230,000 hospitalizations, according to the CDC. The agency also estimates there have been 9,300 deaths from flu so far, including at least 32 children. For those children whose vaccination status is known, 90% were not fully vaccinated against flu.