WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) Massachusetts continues to see high numbers of the flu.
According to the CDC, the state is currently seeing high levels of the virus. There have been 11 flu deaths reported in the state over the past week, 113 total for the season.
If you are infected, health officials recommend getting plenty of rest, drink plenty of water, and take over-the-counter medications to reduce symptoms. Doctors say in some cases prescription antiviral medications may also help.
The first line of defense against the flu is to get vaccinated, said Dr. Andrew Koslow, associate medical director of AFC for Massachusetts. Antiviral medications are a second linewhen the vaccine doesnt prevent infection, or someone didnt receive the vaccine. Antiviral medications are mostly used for severe cases of the flu or patients who are considered at high risk for flu-related complications.
22News spoke with people about how theyre protecting themselves. Now and then I will walk around with a mask on. If I do get in crowded spaces I will wear it and Ive gotten two shots, well the flu shot and the one for Covid, Ive gotten them, so Im doing pretty good, said David Whalen of West Springfield.
Dr. Koslow says you can reduce the spread of infections by doing the following:
According to the CDC, there has been at least 24 million flu illnesses, with more than 260,000 hospitalizations so far this season.
Kayleigh Thomas is a digital reporter who has been a part of the22Newsteam since 2022. Follow Kayleigh on X@kayleighcthomasand view herbioto see more of her work.
CHARLESTON, WV (WVNS) After a confirmed case of Avian Influenza in a backyard flock of birds in Kanawha County, the West Virginia Department of Health stated that the health risk for the public was low.
The case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was discovered in a non-commercial backyard flock in Kanawha County, and according to the West Virginia Department of Health it is the first confirmed case since 2006 of Avian Influenza in commercial birds or backyard flocks.
The exposed individuals are being watched by the West Virginia Department of Health (WVDH) and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA), who are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to stop the virus from spreading more.
According to the West Virginia Department of Health, the public health risk is limited to the people who had direct contact with the infected birds, as the virus does not spread easily to humans.
This virus has been previously identified in surrounding states, it is important to note that the risk of transmission to humans is very low and limited to those with direct contact with the birds. If you have concerns about your exposure or symptoms, you should isolate at home and contact your primary care doctor and local health department. We will continue to follow this closely and provide updates if the risk changes.
Avian Influenza spreads among birds through eye and nose secretions, and manure, and can can spread to different flocks through many ways such as contact with infected birds, wild birds, clothes and shoes of people in contact with the birds, and equipment.
The WVDA will continue to work with USDA-APHIS on monitoring and follow all protocols to protect our valuable poultry industry. The best strategy any bird owner has against this disease is prevention. It is essential to continue taking preventative measures to protect flocks from wild birds where the disease occurs naturally and follow other biosecurity measures to prevent the spread.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture stated that meat, poultry, or egg products are safe to eat, as they are not affected by Avian Influenza, however correct handling of egg and poultry products is recommended as a food safety measure.
The USDA will help protect the poultry industry in West Virginia from the virus by monitoring the affected birds that are in quarantine.
CLEVELAND, Ohio If you havent already gotten you flu shot, its not too late. Thats the message from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Ohio Department of Public Health in response to rising rates of flu and respiratory illness across the state.
Ohios flu activity is currently rated as very high. This is the first time the state flu rates have been designated above high this season. The reason is for the unusually high numbers of hospitalizations, ER visits and outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms.
Normally flu season ends around March, but nearly all indicators are trending above the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest data on the ODH website, though reporting does lag.
During the week ending Feb. 10, the last weekly report, there were 558 hospitalizations due to confirmed cases of influenza in Ohio. In addition, the number of physicians visits jumped by 30%.
Flu hospitalizations are highest in West Central and Northeast Ohio.
However, Northeast Ohio has had the highest number of flu hospitalizations for the season, and Cuyahoga County has had the highest percentage of hospitalizations (14%) of any county in the state. Franklin County is the next highest with 9.5%.
This means that Cuyahoga County is have more than its share of flu cases per capita, as the county accounts for about 10.4% of the states population, while Franklin county is getting fewer cases per capita, with 11.2% of the states population.
Although the exact species of flu virus in early-February surge is unknown, CDC monitoring of this years flu strains shows that they have been well covered by the 2023 vaccine.
Of the circulating virus thus far, 82% were found to be Influenza A, and 18% were influenza B. Among those FluA cases, 78% are subtype (H1N1) pdm09, and 22.3% are the H3N2 subtype. Meanwhile 100% of FluB cases are from the Victoria lineage of viruses.
All three of these strains are included in the current vaccine. Nationally, about half of American adults have been vaccinated.
Learn more about how to schedule a vaccination here.
BETHLEHEM TWP., Pa. - A staff member confirms Bethlehem Township's Notre Dame High School is virtual because of a flu outbreak.
A quarter of the students were out sick Thursday.
We also spoke to someone impacted by the norovirus, a virus where there is no vaccine and washing your hands is the best protection.
All of a sudden, he just went in, vomited here now, and then he had a lot of diarrhea,Bethlehem's Jennifer Jones said as she described the weeklong fall fight her 8-year-old son Dallas had with the norovirus.
It was just constant cleaning up after him and constant showers, she said.
Current CDC data show the Northeast region of the country has the highest positivity rate of the very contagious stomach bug which causes vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps.
You could be feeling fine one minute, and just feeling completely nauseated the next minute, said Dr. Michael Kimzey, the head of Infectious Disease at Doylestown Health.
Kimzey says there is no vaccine for the typically two-to-three day highly contagious virus, that severely dehydrates the body, and can be contracted by touching a tabletop or shaking a hand.
Alcohol rinses that we use, they will not protect you, they don't get rid of this virus. So really the only way to cleanse your hands is going to be using soap and water, he said.
The norovirus uptick comes during flu season, according to staff. Bethlehem Township's Notre Dame High is virtual Friday due to the flu.
Luckily, we rarely see both at the same time, you're just struck with one or the other. But both can cause severe disease, Kimzey said of the flu and norovirus mixing.
As for Dallas, he's back to full strength.
He has a lot of allergies, like seasonal allergies. Other than that, he's fine. Yeah, he's fine, he said.
Doctors say get the flu vaccine, and drink a lot of liquids if you have the norovirus.
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The prospect of the worrisome triple threat of COVID, RSV, and flu was assuaged last year by the effectiveness of flu vaccines. Two recent studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's VISION Network have found that flu vaccines were effective for all ages against both moderate and severe flu in the U.S. during the 2022-2023 flu season.
Both the pediatric and adult VISION Network studies analyzed flu-associated emergency department (E.D.)/urgent care visits (indicative of moderate disease) and hospitalization (indicative of severe disease) from October 2022 through March 2023, a flu season in which far fewer individuals were social distancing or wearing masks than during the two previous flu seasons.
Vaccination reduced the risk of flu-related E.D./urgent care visits and hospitalization for those 6 months to 17 years by almost half. For adults, regardless of age, vaccination reduced the risk of E.D. urgent care visits by almost half and reduced the risk of hospitalization by slightly more than a third.
These results led the authors of both studies to conclude that flu vaccination is likely to substantially reduce illness, death, and strain on health care resources.
"We study the effectiveness of flu and other vaccines to ensure that our processes for forecasting the most effective vaccines are working well and therefore might potentially also be translatable to other diseases as well," said Shaun Grannis, M.D., M.S., a co-author of both the pediatric and adult VISION Network studies, Regenstrief Institute vice president for data and analytics and a family practice physician.
"Given influenza's significant disease burdenfor example, the H1N1 (swine) flu killed over a quarter of a million people worldwide in 2009-2010we want to make sure that we understand virus trends as well as other factors and that we're continuing to do as well as and as much as we can to reduce the flu disease burden."
Both the pediatric and adult studies evaluated electronic health record (EHR) data from sites across three health care systems in California, Utah, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Vaccination reduced the risk of flu-related E.D./urgent care visits (moderate disease) by 48 percent and hospitalization (severe disease) by 40 percent overall across ages 6 months to 17 years. Broken down by age, risk reduction was greater for those aged 6 months to 4 years than for older children and adolescents.
Approximately 30 percent of E.D./critical care visits for acute respiratory illness in children and adolescents were positive for flu, as were 14 percent of hospitalizations.
"Vaccine Effectiveness Against Pediatric Influenza-A-Associated Urgent Care, Emergency Department, and Hospital Encounters During the 2022-2023 Season, VISION Network" is published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Vaccine effectiveness was 45 percent against E.D./critical care visits(moderate disease) for adults under age 65. Effectiveness against hospitalization (severe disease) was 23 percent.
Adults younger than 65 typically received standard-dose inactivated vaccines.
Vaccine effectiveness was 41 percent against both flu-associated E.D./urgent care visits (moderate disease) and hospitalization (serious disease) for this age group.
Adults age 65 and older typically received enhanced vaccine products.
"Influenza vaccine effectiveness against influenza-A-associated emergency department, urgent care, and hospitalization encounters among U.S. adults, 2022-2023" is published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
"As with COVID, the dynamics of flu differs between children and adults. But we found that for both children and adults, vaccination significantly reduced the need for trips to the E.D. or critical care center and for hospitalization for flu-related illnesses last flu season, and this is encouraging," said Dr. Grannis.
"I'm hopeful that we will see similar or even better vaccine effectiveness during the current flu season. Even if they do experience symptoms, people who are vaccinated typically tend to have milder, shorter cases of the flu, a viral illness which can carry a severe disease burden.
"The vaccine effectiveness we saw in last year's flu season is encouraging. As both a research scientist and a primary care physician, I urge everyone to be vaccinated for flu this year and every yearit's good for each person's health and the health of your community."
More information: Mark W Tenforde et al, Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Against Influenza AAssociated Emergency Department, Urgent Care, and Hospitalization Encounters Among US Adults, 20222023, The Journal of Infectious Diseases (2023). DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiad542
Katherine Adams et al, Vaccine Effectiveness Against Pediatric Influenza-AAssociated Urgent Care, Emergency Department, and Hospital Encounters During the 20222023 Season: VISION Network, Clinical Infectious Diseases (2023). DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciad704
Primary Health Medical Group said its seen a surge in influenza type B cases across the Treasure Valley.
The medical group, which has 23 clinics in the Boise area, saw over 250 cases of influenza just last week, with most of those cases being type B, it said in a news release Tuesday.
Influenza type B, along with type A, is responsible for the flu season and is often associated with increased rates for hospitalization and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flu symptoms include include fever, chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headaches and fatigue.
Weve seen some pretty ill patients with this strain, so we encourage those with symptoms to get tested and receive anti-viral medication if they qualify, Dr. Ann Weiss, a physician at Primary Health, said in the news release. For healthy patients who havent received their annual flu vaccine, the CDC continues to recommend getting vaccinated as long as virus is spreading.
Primary Health has urgent-care clinics in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, Eagle, Garden City and Kuna. It is the largest independent medical group in the state.
Patients who feel sick and want to be evaluated for the flu can walk in or book an urgent care appointment online at Primary Health. Masks are required and provided for all patients with illness symptoms, the news release said.
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Getting the flu shot any time during respiratory virus season is better than not getting it at all. But vaccine protection wanes, so timing the shot properly can help antibodies peak when cases are highest.
Researchers wanted to figure out the optimal time for getting a flu shot, and took advantage of the fact that children tend to get vaccinated in the month they were born. In a study published in BMJ, they analyzed health insurance data from more than 800,000 children, ages 2-5, who got a flu shot from 2011 to 2018. The data showed that kids vaccinated in October had the strongest protectionthey were about 12% less likely to get the flu compared to kids vaccinated in August.
It makes sense that October is the ideal time to get vaccinated, says the study's senior author Dr. Anupam Jena, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Get vaccinated in August or September, and immunity might wane too soon; get the shot in December or January, and immunity might not have time to build up before the December or January peak, he says. October seems to be the sweet spot. "These findings provide a data-driven way to show thats true.
Read More: Why It's So Hard to Get Kids Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Pediatricians could put this finding into practice by discussing optimal timing of the shot and doubling down on October appointments, says Jena. To the extent that they can more forcibly advocate that October is the optimal time for kids to get vaccinated, we might see parents moving to get shots in that month.
Other strategies may include focusing on school-based vaccination programs. For things like flu vaccines, convenience is a really big deal, and making them more available in school would solve the problem of many kids not getting vaccinated in the first place, as well as facilitating optimal timing, says Jena.
Getting the flu shot in October could also be important in helping children with weakened immune systems get the best protection possible against severe illness and hospitalization. If you are at risk of having flu-related complications, optimal timing of the shot may matter even more, says Jena. For those kids, they get a larger bang for their buck if they are vaccinated in October.
Since the study only involved children, its not clear if the same effect will hold for adults. But since children are among the most efficient spreaders of the flu, making sure kids are protected could also lead to fewer cases among adults, Jena says. If kids are going to get vaccinated, you might as well optimize the time at which they get the shot."
Although the vaccine works for several months, its potency is known to wane over time. So for maximum protection, you dont want to get it too far ahead of flu season. But if you wait too long, your immune system may not have enough time to rev up before it encounters the virus.
A Harvard research team asked the question when is the ideal time to get vaccinated against influenza? and found a clever way to answer it, at least for children. They realized that children tend to visit their pediatricians during their birth month, and that for children with birthdays in August through December, they typically get a flu shot during that visit.
Mining a vast trove of insurance claims, they found that kids who get their flu shot in October were least likely to get the flu. That points to October as possibly the ideal month to get a flu shot.
In one sense, its not surprising, said Dr. Anupam B. Jena, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study, published Wednesday in the BMJ. October is about midway between when each years vaccine becomes available and when flu season typically begins. But through this study, he said, We were able to show, in a more convincing way, that this is actually the optimal time.
Jena thinks the finding probably applies to adults as well, but that question has not been studied.
He cautioned, however, that getting the vaccine at some point should be the first priority. The benefit of vaccination is much larger than the benefit of tinkering around with the timing, he said.
Small studies have suggested that antibody levels rise about two weeks after vaccination, but no one has examined what that means for protection against flu, Jena said. The most important question, he said, is whether the person gets severely ill with the flu and thats what his study looked at.
How fast the vaccines protection wanes depends on the individual and also the specific strain of flu. Most flu vaccines protect against more than one strain, so whether your vaccine remains effective may depend on which strain of flu you happen to encounter.
Dr. Edward Belongia, an infectious disease epidemiologist and vaccine researcher who was not involved with the study, called it well-designed with a robust methodology, and said it added useful new information about the ideal time to vaccinate children.
Its very helpful from a policy and planning perspective. Its not really too relevant in terms of parents decision-making, said Belongia, who is a senior research scientist with the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute in Wisconsin. He advises parents to simply trust their pediatricians advice.
The difference between September and October is going to be very modest. From a practical standpoint, I would not worry about it, he said. The most important thing is to get vaccinated before the flu season starts. That season typically starts around December with peak transmission in February or March, but the timing can vary significantly from year to year.
This year, flu cases nationally and in Massachusetts peaked in late December. The number of cases has fallen sharply since then, but remain plateaued at a high level. Only 40 percent of Massachusetts residents have been vaccinated against the flu this season. But its not too late to benefit from a flu shot even now, because flu is still widely circulating, Jena said.
Dr. Christina R. Hermos, an associate professor of pediatrics at the UMass Chan Medical School who specializes in infectious diseases and immunology, called the report a cool paper whose results are convincing. But she cautioned, If its summarized as a sound bite, it could be dangerous. I dont want people to think vaccines dont work unless given in October.
The study encompassed 819,223 children ages 2 to 5 who were vaccinated against the flu during 2011 through 2018. It focused on children with birthdays between Aug. 1 and Jan. 31 who were continuously enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance for at least one flu season, defined as September through May.
The analysis found that October was the most common month for children to be vaccinated. Children born in October were more likely to be vaccinated that month, and were least likely to come down with flu during the ensuing season. Some 3 percent of children vaccinated in August got the flu, compared with 2.7 percent of those vaccinated in October.
The study gathered information only on children who had commercial insurance, and did not include uninsured children and children on public insurance such as Medicaid. It also could not account for any vaccinations that were not submitted for insurance reimbursement.
Dr. Caroline J. Kistin, a pediatrician with Hasbro Childrens Hospital in Providence and a health services researcher at the Brown School of Public Health, who was not involved with the study, said the research points to the need to build capacity to administer vaccines at optimal times to think about whether we need to invest more in community-delivered vaccinations.
Primary care practices might set up Saturday flu clinics in October, for example, she said.
Children whose annual pediatrician visit occurs in the spring may not be getting their shots at all, she noted. Theres a huge population of kids who just logistically end up not getting it. We dont make it in health care particularly easy to just pop in and get what you need.
Kistin noted that the worst time to get the shot is after being exposed to the flu. Getting it early is better than that, she said.
If a child came to her for a visit in September, she would tell the parent that its important to get vaccinated, and mention there is some added benefit to getting it in October. If the parent thinks it would be difficult to come back the next month, shed give the shot in September.
I dont want parents to feel stressed about getting it too early, Kistin emphasized. The findings, she said, are more important as a signal to the health care system to increase capacity during that key time.
Felice J. Freyer can be reached at felice.freyer@globe.com. Follow her @felicejfreyer.
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Recombinant protein vaccines, like the Novavax vaccine used to fight COVID-19, offer several advantages over conventional vaccines. They're easy to produce precisely. They're safe and potentially more effective. And they could require smaller doses.
Because of these traits, there is much interest in developing recombinant influenza vaccines. To date, however, the Food and Drug Administration has approved only one such vaccine.
A University at Bufalo-led research team hopes to add to that number. It is developing a new recombinant flu vaccinedescribed in a study published in Cell Reports Medicinethat has the potential to compete with existing vaccines.
"Because of the variable nature of the viruses that cause influenza, current vaccines are not optimally effective among the overall population. We believe our vaccine candidate has the potential to improve upon this by inducing stronger and broader immunity and reducing the likelihood of illness and death," says study senior co-author Jonathan Lovell, Ph.D., SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UB.
Conventional flu vaccines contain either deactivated microbes that cause influenza or are based on weakened forms of the disease. They are made using fertilized chicken eggs or, less commonly, through cell culture-based production.
The vaccine the UB-led team is developing is based on a nanoliposomea tiny spherical sacthat Lovell and colleagues created called cobalt-porphyrin-phospholipid, or CoPoP. The CoPoP platform enables immune response-promoting proteins to be displayed on the surface of the nanoliposome, resulting in potent vaccine efficacy.
(While not part of this study, the CoPoP vaccine platform underwent phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials in South Korea and the Philippines as a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. This is a partnership between UB spinoff company POP Biotechnologies, co-founded by Lovell, and South Korean biotech company EuBiologics.)
Alone, these nanoliposomes do not fight disease. But when combined with recombinant influenza proteins that can be generated based on genetic information from viruses, they enhance the immune system's response to disease.
In the new study, the team attached to the nanoliposome a total of six proteinsthree each from two different protein groups, hemagglutinins, and neuraminidases. The team also added two adjuvants (PHAD and QS21) to boost immune response.
Researchers evaluated the resulting "hexaplex" nanoliposome in animal models with three common flu strains: H1N1, H3N2, and type B.
Even when administered in low doses, the hexaplex nanoliposome provided superior protection and survival from H1 and N1 when compared to Flublok, which is the sole licensed recombinant influenza vaccine in the U.S., and Fluaid, an egg-based vaccine. Tests showed comparable levels of protection against H3N2 and type B viruses.
The tests were performed via vaccination and through blood serum transfer from vaccinated mice into non-vaccinated mice.
"The combination of the two groups of proteins led to synergistic effects. In particular, the adjuvanted nanoliposomes excelled in the production of functional antibodies and the activation of T cells, which are critical to fighting off serious infection of the flu," says lead author Zachary Sia, a Ph.D. candidate in Lovell's lab.
Bruce Davidson, Ph.D., research associate professor of anesthesiology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, is a senior co-author of the study.
He says, "Using not only hemagglutinin but also neuraminidase antigens to create vaccines is important because it translates into broader immunity, and companies will be able to create more doses with fewer materials. That's critical for not only the flu but also potential outbreaks like what we saw with COVID-19. There is still much work to be done in fully testing and validating this flu technology, but at this point, these early results are quite promising."
More information: , Adjuvanted Nanoliposomes Displaying Six Hemagglutinins and Neuraminidases as an Influenza Virus Vaccine, Cell Reports Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2024.101433. www.cell.com/cell-reports-medi 2666-3791(24)00056-9
(Precision Vaccinations News)
The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed its recommended composition for influenza vaccines for the northern hemisphere flu season of 2024-2025.
Both trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines are recommended as of February 23, 2024.
These WHO recommendations are utilized by national vaccine regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical companies to develop, produce, and license influenza vaccines for the following influenza season.
Previously, the WHO urged manufacturerstoeliminatetheB/Yamagatacomponent from flu vaccines for 2024-2025.
As of February 10, 2024, over157millionflu vaccines (egg, cell, and nasal)had beendistributed in the United States during the 2023-2024 season.
