Influenza has arrived much earlier than usual and not enough people have been vaccinated

The flu season is usually from October to May and peaks from December to February. Flu cases spike shortly after people return from their Thanksgiving vacation trips. Also, cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV (another common virus that arrives early and can make children very sick) are starting to plateau or decline, and COVID-19 continues to spread. It also occurs when

Dr. Richard Murray, an infectious disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital, said: But he noted that it’s too early to know if the total number of cases will rise at the end of the season, or if there will be more serious illness.

“We don’t know how long this will last, so it makes sense to get vaccinated,” he said.

According to state data, 3% of hospitalizations last week were related to the flu, a rate not seen until late January of the 2019-2020 flu season and higher than the last two flu seasons overall. Similarly, doctor visits for flu-like illness reached nearly 6% last week. During the 2019-2020 flu season, it took until early February for such visits to reach that percentage, which declined throughout the 2021-2022 and 2020-2021 flu seasons.

No one knows for sure why the flu spread so early, but it’s possible that precautions during the pandemic prevented young children from being exposed to the flu at an early age, making them particularly vulnerable this year. may be the cause.

“Suddenly, so many immunologically naïve children are getting the flu for the first time,” he said. A weakened immune system makes you more likely to catch the flu and more likely to spread it.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” Marie said. “We changed the epidemiology of this virus by changing our behavior.”

While RSV causes serious illness primarily in small babies, influenza can also affect older children for unknown reasons. “Some otherwise healthy children don’t seem to handle cases of the flu as well as one might expect for their age,” Malley said.

“Many of the same principles that we applied to COVID before should apply to this one,” he added, notably mask-wearing, isolation when sick, and vaccination.

Dr. Wayne Altman, a family physician in Arlington, says the flu is much more likely to cause serious illness in children than COVID. And it spreads rapidly among children, who tend not to take precautions.

“Most kids will be fine with the flu,” said Altman, director of family medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. It’s a lot more than you’ll see in

On Thursday, the Boston Public Health Commission issued an alert for an early flu epidemic, with 1,784 flu cases in the city since Oct. 1, and more than 700 cases in the previous week. said he did.

The commission also reported a surge in children hospitalized with the flu, saying 59% of reported flu cases occurred among children and adolescents under the age of 18.

A similar trend can be seen nationwide. At a news conference Monday, Dr. Rochelle Wallenski, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said hospitalizations for flu were the highest in his decade at this time of year. So far this season, according to Estimation of CDCAt least 13 million people have fallen ill, 120,000 have been hospitalized and 7,300 have died from the flu. This includes her 21 deaths of children.

Flu vaccination is recommended for everyone 6 months and older. According to state data, as of Dec. 3, 43% of children aged 6 months to 4 and 37% of children aged 5 to her 12 had been vaccinated against the flu. This is better than 26% of those aged 18-49. The highest percentage (67%) was her 65 years or older.

Statewide, ethnic minority vaccination rates are low, with 26% of blacks and 22% of Hispanics ever vaccinated, compared to 39% of whites. Hospitalization rates for influenza show a similar trend. So far this year, 10 per 100,000 white residents have been hospitalized with the flu, compared with 16 per 100,000 Hispanic residents and 19 per 100,000 black residents.

According to Altman, attitudes toward flu vaccination fall into three categories. Waking up to the importance of vaccines during the pandemic, some people are getting flu shots they didn’t have before. Also, some people have pandemic fatigue and it doesn’t work out.

Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission and Public Health Commissioner, said in a statement: “If you are sick, stay home and call your doctor to ask about flu and COVID-19 treatments. Please wear the

You can find flu vaccination providers by searching this government website. https://www.vaccines.gov/find-vaccines/

Felice J. Freyer can be contacted at: [email protected]Follow her on Twitter @felicejfreyer.