Since October, at least 20 million Americans have gotten the flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. That number includes at least 270,000 flu hospitalizations and 11,000 deaths, including 52 pediatric deaths this flu season.
“That is higher, significantly higher, than the last few years,” says Dr. Tyler B. Evans, an infectious disease specialist and CEO of Wellness Equity Alliance, a public health organization for underserved populations. Currently, the most common flu strain infecting people is a strain of the influenza A (H3N2) virus called “subclade K.” It’s responsible for 90% of infections this flu season, and has been deemed by some media outlets as a “super flu.”
“I wouldn’t call it ‘super flu,’ [but] it is more severe than prior seasons,” Evans says, adding that “severity” in this context typically refers to how contagious it is. Symptomatically, it’s similar to most other flu strains, he notes.
Evans cites two reasons for this year’s increased levels of spread. First: “The vaccine is not quite as effective” as it usually is, he says. To be clear, it’s “still very effective,” says Evans — it just lacks the same degree of prevention as in most years, due to some viral mutations in this year’s predominant influenza strain that vaccine manufacturers didn’t predict.
