The latest official reports say that the influenza continues to spread among the citizens and by now in 35 states there is widespread influenza activity. It looks like the disease is the hardest on young and middle-aged people instead of elderly people and children.
Statistics
So far there have been 2,262 people admitted to the hospital because of the condition and 61% of them belong to the age group of 18-64. Generally speaking, over 50% of the people admitted to the hospital because of influenza are over the age of 65.
H1N1
It is possible for the H1N1 strain to hit the population this year and the majority of the young adults were not vaccinated against it. This is why it can affect the otherwise healthy young population. In fact, it should be an alarming sign that the majority of the people hospitalized didn’t get their flu shot this year.
The Shot
On a national average, about 40%-45% of the people get their annual flu shot. However, only 31% of the people belonging to the age group of 18-49 get the vaccine. Back in 2009, the young adults and middle-aged population were disproportionately hardly hit by the H1N1 virus.
The Trend
There is another reason for this new trend: until 2009 the strain of H1N1 has been dormant for decades. As a result the young adults did not develop immunity to the strain. Nonetheless we have to add that the number of deaths caused by pneumonia and the flu are below the epidemic levels.
Scary Facts
All this seems unimportant if we come to think of the fact that 6.9% of all deaths this year have been caused by pneumonia or the flu. This is a bit under the epidemic 7.1% threshold. In this year only 10 children have already died because of the flu.
Raising Awareness
Such statistical data should raise the awareness of people. According to the officials, all people above the age of 6 months should get vaccinated. The vaccinations have been designed to protect the population against the H1N1 virus strain.
The Southwest
This is the region of the country that has been hit the hardest, including Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and New Mexico. About 9% of the visits to the doctor’s office are because of the symptoms of flu, which is higher than in the other regions of the country. If flu shots would have been taken the results would be a lot different.