The weekly flu report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found flu cases trending downward nationwide for the week ending February 8. Connecticut, however, remained among six states continuing to report high numbers of cases of the flu. Over 2,600 flu cases have been reported this season.
In a small preliminary study of people hospitalized for influenza at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, researchers found the most severe cases in people who had not been vaccinated. The findings were published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Eighty-seven percent of those hospitalized at Duke were infected with H1N1, the same strain responsible for the global pandemic in 2009. A surprising number were young, otherwise healthy people.
CDC experts said that trend mirrors what they’re seeing across the country. Many older people may have developed a level of immunity to H1N1, because a similar flu strain circulated in the 1940s. Younger people would not have been exposed. Many people between the ages of 18 and 49 tend to think they don’t need flu shots.
