News from the FDA/CDC

Twenty-five states at highest flu activity level

Publish date: February 21, 2017
By
Richard Franki

 

Flu activity in the United States continued to increase as half of the states reached the highest level of influenza-like illness (ILI) activity in the week ending Feb. 11, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the week, the 25 states at level 10 on the CDC’s 1-10 scale of ILI activity were joined in the high range by Illinois and Kentucky at level 9 and Iowa at level 8, the CDC reported. The previous week, there were 23 states in the high range.

Influenza-like illness activity level, week ending Feb. 11, 2017
For the week ending Feb. 11, the national proportion of outpatient visits for ILI was 5.2%, compared with 4.6% the week before, and well above last season’s high of 3.6%. The national baseline is 2.2%, the CDC noted.

Of the nine flu-related pediatric deaths reported to the CDC during the latest week, eight occurred in earlier weeks. For the 2016-2017 season so far, 29 flu-related pediatric deaths have been reported, the CDC said.

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