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CDC: Severe flu season continues; antivirals underused
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Approximately halfway through the season, influenza remains severe but antiviral drugs are significantly underused despite their proven benefit on reducing the severity and duration of symptoms, according to CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH.
“The take-home message from this flu season is that antiviral medicines are underutilized,” Frieden said today during a teleconference. “If you get them early, they can keep you out of the hospital and even save your life.”
This season continues to be a bad one for influenza, especially for older people and people with underlying medical conditions. The hospitalization rates among people aged older than 65 years continue to rise sharply: the hospitalization rate this past week in this group was 92 per 100,000, up from 52 per 100,000 the previous week.
Thomas R. Frieden
“This high rate of hospitalization among people older than 65 is typical in seasons where the predominant strain is H3N2,” Frieden said. “In the last season where H3N2 was the predominant strain, the 2012-2013 season, the cumulative hospitalization rate in this population was 183 per 100,000.”
There also have been 26 influenza-related pediatric deaths this season, Frieden said.
About two-thirds of the H3N2 viruses analyzed this season are different than the H3N2 virus included in this year’s influenza vaccine. Protection against this drifted H3N2 virus will probably be reduced, Frieden said.
“Despite the likelihood of lower vaccine effectiveness this year, we continue to urge people to get vaccinated,” Frieden said. “It may still offer some protection, and there are other strains of flu out there. Furthermore, in many flu years, there is a proportion of flu cases from other strains late in the season, and the influenza B strains are well-matched.”
Frieden also said it is important for adults aged older than 65 years and in high medical risk groups to receive the recommended pneumococcal vaccines because having influenza increases the chances of getting pneumococcal disease.
The CDC recommends antiviral drugs as an adjunct to vaccination, Frieden said. They are the only medicines that can treat influenza illness.
“In the context of an H3N2-predominant season, with a less-effective vaccine, treatment with antiviral drugs is even more important than usual,” Frieden said.