Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released some new flu data to the public on January 24, despite the Trump administration’s halt of nearly all scientific communication coming from federal health agencies, reports NBC News.
The information was not reported as it usually is by the CDC, in a weekly breakdown of flu activity called FluView, but was added to a section that focuses on respiratory illnesses in general.
According to eh NBC News report, trends show that flu activity remains high and is rising in many areas of the country, with increases in flu found in wastewater samples, the number of positive flu tests and flurelated visits to the emergency room. As of the week ending on January 18, the percentage of tests that came back positive for the flu was 25 pc, up from 19 pc the week before, said the report.
Emergency departments are also seeing an increasing number of people sick with flu, especially babies, older children and teens. Of overall visits to the ER, 5.2 per cent were for the flu and were close to reaching the surge hospitals saw before the winter holidays.
Hospitals rely on the CDC’s weekly update to prepare for what’s coming their way, especially because flu is notoriously unpredictable. “We look at data like this to see what additional resources we might need to bring in,” such as extra nurses or isolation beds, said Dr Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau in New York. “It gives us a certain sense of what will happen.”
