The flu season is spreading across the US. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main strain making people sick is H1N1 which may hit young adults harder than the usual mostly elderly victims. Flu kills people every year about 3,000 and 49,000 a year, depending on the season.
Flu activity started in the southeast and south-central part of the country and is now spreading to the Midwest but deaths have not yet reached epidemic levels.
CDC says that 20 states have high levels of flu in America. The Regional Medical Center in San Jose, California set up a tent in its parking lot this week to handle patients who can be seen quickly and sent home. Many hospital emergency departments are chronically full and experts say it’s best to keep patients with infectious diseases such as flu away from other patients. CDC says the flu vaccine kept nearly 80,000 people out of the hospital last year ad prevented 6.6 million cases of flu.
The H1N1 strain first popped up in US on 2009 causing the swine flu pandemic but hasn’t dominated the circulating mix of flu strains since CDC watching to see if there’s a change of pattern of illness. Younger adults may be more susceptible and there are least likely to have been vaccinated.
CDC in their advice is persuade people to get vaccinated and wash your hands frequently and thoroughly.
Source :- NBC News