The Ministry of Health yesterday confirmed that three more people were infected with Mpox (formerly called monkey pox), taking the total number of cases to nine in the country.
According to the press release issued by the Ministry of Health, the new cases were reported in Dangkor, Tuol Kork and Por Senchey districts of Phnom Penh and the patients are undergoing treatment.
The first new case of Mpox in Cambodia occurred on a 28-year-old man living in Po Pe village, Toek Thla commune, Sen Sok district, Phnom Penh.
Subsequently, there were new cases of Mpox, but the Health Ministry has not revealed their identities.
Following the three fresh cases, the ministry urged residents to take utmost care of their personal hygiene with a high sense of responsibility to prevent the disease from spreading.
The Health Ministry in its statement said that the Mpox virus is transmitted from person to person through all forms of sexual contact and direct contact with wounds, body fluids, saliva, airborne droplets and virus contaminated equipment, including clothing, towels or spoons, among other things.
The Mpox virus can also be transmitted from mother to child through the umbilical cord during or after childbirth, if a mother has the immunodeficiency syndrome.
Dr Quach Mengly, a renowned public health physician, said that Mpox is a viral disease caused by monkeys, mice, bats and squirrels.
It is a very rare disease in Cambodia; the symptom is itchiness all over the body. We do not want it to happen much in Cambodia because this virus can spread very quickly.
According to Dr Mengly, the symptoms of Mpox are similar to those of the flu, with fever, chills, fatigue, pain in the joints and rashes. There is no specific treatment yet; only primary care can be given to the infected patients.
It causes muscle pain, bone pain, a high temperature, and, most importantly, an itchy rash that leaves scars for between six months and one year, said Dr Mengly.
On July 23, 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Mpox a global emergency that poses a risk to public health, especially in Europe.
According to the WHO, as of January 25, 2024, the disease has been spreading in 117 countries, with a total of 93,030 cases and 176 deaths across the world.
A rare disease caused by infection with the Mpox virus, the disease shows symptoms similar to smallpox, although less severe.
While smallpox was eradicated in 1980, Mpox continues to occur in countries in central and western Africa.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is a contagious pathogen that causes the respiratory infection known as COVID-19. Since it emerged in late 2019, the virus induced a global pandemic and wide-scale lockdowns before a vaccine was developed.
Now, there are more than 20 recognized variations of the original virus, and the vaccines first developed in late 2020 have been updated to match new and prominent variants of the coronavirus.
This article will explore the current vaccination guidelines and describe what a booster is and when you need one.
SDI Productions / Getty Images
When you are vaccinated against a particular virus, your immune system gets information from the virus, allowing your body to mount a defense and fight off the infection. The immunity you develop is similar to your natural immunity against a virus after overcoming an active infectionwithout having to get sick first.
Like many living things, though, viruses evolve over time. More than 20 recognized variants of the COVID-19 virus have emerged in the years since the first COVID-19 vaccines were formulated.
Boosters are updates to the original vaccine you received. These updates contain additional information about new or mutated viruses to offer you protection against the latest variants.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all American adults receive at least one of the latest vaccine updates. These updates protect against newer variants of COVID-19 and boost the work of the original vaccine, as its effectiveness can fade over time.
There are several brands of COVID-19 vaccines, and the CDC does not recommend one over another.
How long it takes a vaccine or booster to offer protection and how long protection lasts can vary from person to person. Infants, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems may not develop strong responses to the vaccine and may require additional doses or boosters.
Data from vaccine manufacturers suggest that, for most people, vaccines and booster doses start protecting you against the coronavirus within a week or two after your injection. However, specific factors, discussed later, can play a role in how quickly you develop immunity against COVID-19.
The CDC does not recommend one of the currently available vaccines over another as long as it's age-appropriate. Revised vaccines and boosters are formulated to protect against the latest variations of the virus. There are some slight differences in the types, how they work, and what recommendations have been made for boosters.
The two types of COVID-19 vaccines are:
Both types of vaccine offer similar levels of protection, but the Novavax vaccine is not provided to children under 12. According to the CDC, each vaccine is updated to protect against the newest or most commonly circulating strains of COVID-19.
Talk to a healthcare provider to determine which COVID-19 vaccine or booster is right for you.
How long protection lasts can also vary from person to person, but research suggests that strong protection against COVID-19 infection lasts for about five months after vaccination. Beyond that, immunity can weaken, but you will still have some protection.
A study published in spring 2023 revealed that even vaccines that had lost the ability to prevent infection completely were helpful in preventing hospitalization or death from a severe COVID-19 infection.
How long your protection lasts will depend on the strength of your immune system, how many total vaccinations and boosters you have received, and what new variants or strains emerge that might not be covered by your last booster formula.
Your overall health can impact how effectively and quickly your body develops protection after immunization and how long protection lasts.
Comorbidities (co-occurring illnesses or conditions) and chronic health problems can impact the strength and response of your immune system, so things like cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, and gastrointestinal diseases can limit the strength and duration of the protection your vaccine or booster provides.
Other factors that can influence the strength and duration of your protection after a COVID-19 vaccine or booster include:
Some vaccine-specific factors can affect how well an immunization works. This includes the dose you receive, the timing of your immunization, and what other vaccines or medications you may have received simultaneously.
If you were exposed to COVID-19 or think you may be infected with the virus, take an at-home test or see a healthcare provider for definitive results. If you currently have COVID-19, experts recommend waiting until you have recovered to become vaccinated against COVID-19.
Several vaccines and boosters have been developed since the COVID-19 virus emerged in late 2019. If you have not been vaccinated or received an updated vaccine after September 2023, the CDC recommends you receive a booster to ensure the most adequate protection from newer strains of COVID-19.
Talk to a healthcare provider if you are sick, have complex medical problems, or have other concerns about how well you will respond to the vaccine or a COVID-19 booster.
If you test positive for COVID-19, the duration of contagiousness can vary. This is because the virus can be shed (meaning released from the body through talking, exhaling, etc.) for anywhere from days to months depending on your age, vaccination status, immune status, severity of infection, and any preexisting conditions you may have.
Even so, the likelihood of transmission decreases as fewer viruses are shed over time. Based on current evidence, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends isolating for at least five days if you have mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 and at least 10 days if you have moderate to severe COVID-19.
Other interventions, such as face masks and the avoidance of close contact, can help prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 once you leave isolation.
This article explains how long COVID-19 is contagious and the variables that can increase or decrease the duration. It also offers tips on how to protect others if you or someone know gets COVID-19.
Lazy_Bear / Getty Images
As a general rule, most people who get COVID-19 are no longer contagious 10 days after the appearance of symptoms or after testing positive for the virus. While there is significant variation in the risk of transmission, most cases follow the same general timeline once symptoms develop.
When you are infected with COVID-19, the virus goes through what is called the incubation period. This is the time between exposure to the virus and the first appearance of symptoms. With COVID-19, the incubation period is generally two to three days following exposure.
During this period, viral particles will start to be shed through exhaling, talking, laughing, and other means. So, even if there are no symptoms, the infected person can still unwittingly transmit the virus to others. This is why the disease is so hard to control.
When symptoms do developand the number of viruses in the body (called the viral load) continues to increasea person will be at their peak contagiousness and most able to transmit it to others.
The current body of evidence suggests that the peak contagiousness of COVID-19 is around three days after the first appearance of symptoms. This is when the viral load in most people with COVID-19 is at its highest and right before the immune system reins the infection in.
However, this shouldn't suggest that everyone with COVID-19 peaks at the same time or even that a drop in your viral load corresponds to a drop in viral shedding.
A 2023 study from Northwestern University found that people with COVID-19 exhale as many as 800 copies of the virus per minute during the first eight days after symptoms appear. So, even though the viral load may be dropping, infectious viral particles may continue to be exhaled.
This further reinforces the need for face masks and other preventive measures once isolation typically ends (after the fifth day following symptom onset or a positive test).
There are situations in which the contagiousness of COVID-19 extends well beyond 10 days. According to the CDC, people with severe COVID-19 or those who are moderately to severely immunocompromised may remain contagious for longer and need to isolate for 20 days or even more.
Studies have repeatedly shown that the duration of viral shedding increases with the severity of the infection (such as when pneumonia or severe respiratory distress is involved). In such cases, the viral load can remain persistently high, increasing the duration of contagiousness to well over a month in rare instances.
If you are immunocompromised, the duration of contagiousness can be longer simply because it takes longer for the immune system to control the infection. While there is no rule as to how much longer that might be, a 2023 study in the journal Pathophysiology reported that immunocompromised people have a median viable viral shedding period of four weeks.
This includes people on chemotherapy, organ transplant recipients on immunosuppressants, and people with advanced untreated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Some COVID variants are more virulent (able to be passed) and pathogenic (able to cause illness) than previous strains. This is because, as the virus mutates, the mutations that are best able to survive are those that can escape immune detection.
When this happens, the immune cells that were once able to stop COVID-19 at the frontlines are less able to do so, increasing the risk of transmission.
An example of this is the Omicron variant first identified in 2021. Before Omicron, the peak contagiousness of the virus was two days before symptoms appeared and three days afterward, with viral shedding peaking on or before the appearance of symptoms.
With the emergence of Omicron, the peak of viral shedding was two to three days later.
It is possibleand perhaps likelythat future variants will become more virulent even if they aren't necessarily more pathogenic.
This is evidenced by the Delta variant, the 12th variant first seen in 2020. According to a study published in the Frontiers of Public Health, the duration of infectious shedding of the Delta variant was more than twice as long as the SARS-CoV-2 virus back in 2019.
It is estimated that more than 1 of every 3 COVID-19 infections in the United States are asymptomatic. This presents a significant public health challenge as viral sheddingand the spread of the viruscan still occur even in the absence of symptoms.
According to research from the CDC, no less than 24% of all COVID-19 infections in the United States are the result of asymptomatic transmission.
Even so, asymptomatic infections tend to be less virulent than symptomatic infections, partly because the peak viral load tends to be lower. In some cases, the duration of contagiousness may be no longer than three days.
Concerning infectious shedding, the average duration is nine days for someone symptomatic for COVID-19 vs. only six days for someone asymptomatic for COVID-19.
This supports the current CDC guidance recommending isolation for five days if you test positive for COVID-19, even if you have no symptoms.
Generally, COVID-19 infections in children and adolescents cause less severe illness and fewer deaths than in adults. Research suggests that children may also be less susceptible to COVID-19 infection.
According to a 2021 review of studies involving 41,640 children and 268,945 adults, the risk of COVID-19 transmission was 56% less to kids than to adults. Even within the same household, children are nearly 60% less likely than adults to get COVID-19 from another family member.
Among the possible explanations for this, children seem to harbor fewer receptors for COVID-19called angiotensin converting enzyme-2, or ACE-2, receptorsin their upper respiratory tracts. These receptors are proteins on cells to which viral particles attach and infect the cell. As children grow into adulthood, the number of receptors increases, providing the virus more targets for infection.
This doesn't mean that a child with COVID-19 is any less able to pass the virus than adults.
According to a study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, which monitored 1,394 families from 2020 to 2021, children were actually more likely to transmit COVID-19 than other members of their households.
This was explained by the fact that 75% of the children were asymptomatic for COVID-19 and may have unknowingly spread the virus through nasal secretions and hand-to-nose behaviors.
COVID-19 vaccination not only decreases your risk of infection and severe illness, but it may also significantly reduce your contagiousness.
A 2022 study published in JAMA Network Open was one of several that showed that fully vaccinated people have a shorter duration of infectious viral sheddingas well as a lower risk of transmitting it to othersthan either partially vaccinated or unvaccinated people.
The study, which involved high-risk healthcare workers, hospital patients, and caregivers, found that the duration of contagiousness was roughly 10 days for unvaccinated people and eight days for partially vaccinated peoplebut only four days for fully vaccinated people.
The current CDC guidance for COVID-19 isolation varies by the severity of infection, with special consideration given to those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.
People with mild or asymptomatic illness should isolate through at least day 5, as follows:
If you are asymptomatic with COVID-19 but then develop symptoms, you would need to restart isolation at day 0. If you have mild COVID-19 but experience a recurrence or worsening symptoms, you would also need to restart at day 0.
People with moderate to severe COVID should isolate through at least day 10, as follows:
People with severe COVID-19 (such as those who have been hospitalized or placed on a ventilator) may need to extend their isolation to 20 days as they are often infectious well beyond 10 days.
People with COVID who are moderately or severely immunocompromised should isolate through at least Day 20, as follows:
You will also need to have two consecutive negative test results 24 hours apart to confidently end isolation. If not (or if your symptoms persist), you may need to isolate well beyond 20 days. Their healthcare provider can give them guidance on what is recommended.
Health experts generally agree that COVID-19 is here to stay and that continued vigilance is needed as new variants and outbreaks emerge.
To protect yourself and others from this highly contagious virus, the CDC recommends the following preventive measures:
The contagiousness of COVID-19 can vary, but people with mild or asymptomatic illness are usually no longer contagious after 10 days. People with moderate to severe illness or who are moderately to severely immunocompromised may remain contagious for 10 to 20 days or even longer.
Latest COVID Vaccine Offers Increased Protection
In a promising development, recent studies indicate that the most recent COVID-19 vaccine provides 54% more protection against symptomatic infection compared to unvaccinated individuals. This news is a ray of hope amidst the ongoing pandemic and attests to the efficacy of the latest vaccines in combating the virus.
A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the JN 1 COVID-19 variant now accounts for more than 93 percent of cases. The variant is highly transmissible, posing a significant threat to public health. However, the latest COVID-19 vaccine appears to be effective in mitigating the JN 1 variants impact, providing similar protection levels against both the XBB lineage variants and the JN 1 variant.
Despite these promising results, the CDC expects that protection from the updated vaccine will decline over time, leading to a potential recommendation for an annual COVID-19 vaccine. As of February 2, only about 22 percent of people aged 18 and older have received the updated vaccine, according to CDC data.
The effectiveness of the 2023-24 updated COVID-19 vaccine against symptomatic infection was estimated in a recent study. The monovalent vaccine offered 54% protection from symptomatic illness, with effectiveness estimated at 57% in the 18-49 age group and 46% among those aged 50 and above. The US CDC recommends the vaccine for all individuals aged six months or older.
The study also provided early efficacy estimates of the updated vaccine against the JN 1 lineage, indicating that vaccine effectiveness is expected to wane over time since vaccination.
Data from three US cohort studies suggest that the bivalent COVID vaccine offers 54% protection in school-age children against lab-confirmed COVID infection and symptomatic disease. A study of almost 200,000 newborns in Sweden and Norway further showed that maternal receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy poses no risk to infants. Instead, it protects babies from serious complications.
Research published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation found that alternating arms when receiving multiple shots of the COVID-19 vaccine can lead to an improved immune response. This strategy can be particularly significant for people who do not respond well to vaccines due to age or health conditions. The study showed that switching arms increased blood antibody levels by up to four times, resulting in enhanced immunity to the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and an even stronger immune response to the Omicron variant. This effect persisted beyond 13 months after boosting.
1. In this randomized controlled trial, patients experiencing symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) saw significant improvement in symptom resolution times compared to the placebo group.
2. Further investigation is needed to specifically delineate the impact of simnotrelvir on older COVID-19 patients.
Evidence Rating Level: 1 (Excellent)
Study Rundown: COVID-19 has been a major public health concern since the initial pandemic occurrence in 2020. Though vaccinations are beneficial, they have not been completely effective at preventing the more recent strains of COVID-19. The new variants have strong immune evasion, thus warranting the search for a new drug affecting these variants. Simnotrelvir (SIM0417), an oral small-molecule antiviral agent targeting the SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro, has been proposed as a treatment. When used against the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, simnotrelvir showed antiviral activity with acceptable side effects. In this double-blind randomized control trial, patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 had shorter-lasting symptoms after receiving simnotrelvir plus ritonavir. In the study, those experiencing respiratory symptoms showed more benefits from Simnotrelvir when compared to the placebo. Those in the treatment group had a decrease in their viral load until day nine when compared to those in the placebo group. The placebo group could have experienced unblinding due to the unique taste of the placebo drug, as it only contained excipients. This study only included younger individuals, so the safety and efficacy of this drug on the elderly remains unclear. Overall, early intervention with simnotrelvir plus ritonavir safely showed reduced length of symptoms in patients with COVID-19.
Click here to read the study in NEJM
In-Depth [randomized controlled trial]: A randomized controlled trial in China examined the effects of simnotrelvir on COVID-19 patients. The eligibility criteria included being 18 or older, having signs or symptoms of COVID-19 within three days before the first dose, having at least one symptom before the first dose, and having a mild or moderate severity of the illness. To determine the severity levels, the Food and Drug Administration provided definitions to help classify the participants in the study. The study provided exclusion criteria, including serious kidney, liver, or heart disease, along with the use or expected use of medications that interfere with cytochrome P-450 3A4. The symptoms of COVID-19 most commonly found in participants were dry throat (76.2%), cough (73.4%), and stuffy or runny nose (55.9%). The simnotrelvir group had a significantly shorter time for symptom resolution (180.1 hours; 95% Confidence Interval [CI], 162.1 to 201.6) than the placebo group did (216.0 hours; 95% CI, 203.4 to 228.1). The fever and systemic symptoms resolution times were similar in both groups. However, the simnotrelvir group experienced significantly faster resolution of respiratory symptoms (-41.4 hours; 95% CI, -70.7 to -13.3). From the time of receiving the first dose until day 29, there was a lower incidence of adverse events in the placebo group than in the simnotrelvir group (21.6% vs. 29.0%). The placebo group experienced two serious adverse events, whereas the simnotrelvir group did not experience any. In summary, this studys results suggest that simnotrelvir plus ritonavir is an effective and safe treatment for COVID-19, resulting in earlier respiratory symptom resolution.
Image: PD
2024 2 Minute Medicine, Inc. All rights reserved. No works may be reproduced without expressed written consent from 2 Minute Medicine, Inc. Inquire about licensing here. No article should be construed as medical advice and is not intended as such by the authors or by 2 Minute Medicine, Inc.
CSL and Arcturus Therapeutics have published follow-up analysis from a Phase III clinical trial indicating that ARCT-154, a self-amplifying messenger RNA (sa-mRNA) Covid-19 vaccine, offers a longer duration of immunity as a booster dose.
The study compared ARCT-154s immunogenicity against that of the conventional mRNA Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty one, three and six months after a booster dose.
The randomised, double-blind trial assessed the vaccines ability to induce immunity against both the original Wuhan strain and the Omicron BA.4/5 variant.
ARCT-154 was administered at a significantly lower dose of 5g as against Comirnaty at 30g.
Six months after vaccination, the analysis showed that ARCT-154 induced a longer immune response and had an advantage in antibody persistence over Comirnaty.
Participants in both groups initially had similar geometric mean titers (GMTs) of surrogate virus-neutralising antibodies against the Wuhan-Hu-1 strain.
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One month after receiving the booster, the ARCT-154 arm showed a higher immune response with a GMT of 5,390 versus the Comirnaty groups GMT of 3,738, resulting in a GMT ratio of 1.44.
By day 91, titers were equal to or greater than those on day 29 in 205 of the 369 ARCT-154 recipients, but only in 108 of the 356 Comirnaty recipients.
The different rates of antibody waning meant that by day 181, the GMTs of ARCT-154 recipients were 4,119, maintaining a GMT ratio of 2.21 between the vaccine groups.
A similar pattern of superior immunogenicity and a slower decline in neutralising antibodies following the ARCT-154 vaccine was also observed for the Omicron BA.4/5 variant.
CSL Vaccines Innovation Unit senior vice-president Jonathan Edelman said: These results further support sa-mRNAs differentiating attribute to provide prolonged protection against Covid-19 at lower doses.
Protecting the global public from viral respiratory diseases remains a top priority for us, and we look forward to continuing to collect and share data at the twelve-month post-booster mark.
Editorial content is independently produced and follows thehighest standardsof journalistic integrity. Topic sponsors are not involved in the creation of editorial content.
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Over the last two years, I have held numerous town halls across my district to hear from constituents about the issues our country is facing that concern them the most. I expected to hear about the cost of gas and groceries or our open southern border (and I did), but the number one concern I heard about was the weaponization of our government against its own citizens.
Americans saw the government use COVID-19 as an excuse to take over our lives, from vaccination cards to mask mandates to forced church closures. We must ensure this can never happen again.
One way President Biden and blue city Democrats used COVID-19 for government overreach was public health emergency declarations. Many cities, like Washington, D.C., extended their public health emergencies for years on end in order to enact policies like vaccine passports. For several months, those in D.C. who chose not to take the vaccine were not allowed to eat in restaurants.
Its hard to believe something like that could happen in the United States of America. Thats why I introduced the Public Health Emergency Accountability Act, which would automatically terminate public health emergency declarations after 90 days without an act of Congress to extend them.
Democrats also used these declarations to enforce strict mask mandates that lasted for years in some cities. Bidens Center for Disease Control (CDC) forced every American to wear masks on planes for 14 months without ever passing a law this is blatantly unconstitutional.
I joined a lawsuit against the CDC in 2022 that helped end the illegal mask mandate. I also co-sponsored the Freedom to Fly Maskless Act, which if passed would prevent the CDC from ever issuing another unconstitutional mandate.
Many of our military patriots in my district who serve at Fort Novosel and Maxwell-Gunter and all over the nation were fired for refusing to comply with Bidens unconstitutional military and government vaccine mandate. It is an absolute disgrace that these service members had their livelihoods stripped away because of a politically motivated, unscientific mandate.
I stood against the National Defense Authorization Act that contained the military vaccine mandate, and co-sponsored legislation to reinstate those who were fired with backpay.
Not only did Bidens bureaucrats force us to wear masks and take an experimental vaccine, they also tracked who complied and who did not. In 2021, the House passed a bill to provide $400 million in taxpayer funding for a computer database to record when vaccines were administered to individuals.
This was just another disturbing example of the government doing everything in their power to seize control of Americansand exert federal control in every aspect of our daily lives, but even more disturbingly, 80 Republicans voted for it, including members of our own states delegation.
I opposed the vaccine database, and Ill continue to fight any legislation that infringes on Americans constitutional rights. Americans should be able to trust their government, and they should never have to fear retaliation from our bloated bureaucracy for exercising their constitutional rights.
Congressman Barry Moore is the U.S. Representative for AL-02 and lives in Enterprise, Alabama with his family. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee and House Agriculture Committee in Congress.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [emailprotected].
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How to stay healthy with Flu cases on the rise
by Asher Bookspan, WSBT 22 Reporter
FILE - A flu vaccine is readied at the L.A. Care and Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plans' Community Resource Center in Lynwood, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
Even during what doctors call "a mild to moderate flu season", doctors are seeing an uptick in flu cases in our area.
Dr. Rex Cabaltica, the medical director at Berrien County Health Department, says while numbers have been lower this year for the flu overall, there was a jump in positive cases over the past week.
He says cases were trending downward until the end of January where positive flu cases jumped up from the 40 to 60 percent range they had been seeing,
"This past week, we saw a slight bump back up to 70, 71%, compared to 56, the prior week. So again, it's there's always a lag time. But this was kind of an unusual uptick, you know, 66, 65, that's 71. So we want to keep our eye on the ball, and just make sure that that does trend down in the coming weeks," Dr. Cabaltica said.
Dr. Cabaltica says that he was surprised to find numbers show that many cases are those who do not have risk factors such as young children, saying that even with the season expected to wind down in March there is still reason to get vaccinated.
"So if you want to keep your kid out of the hospital, again, consider getting vaccinated. So that's not something that we all think as kids, they're not gonna have any problems and they are lower risk compared to the 65 year olds, but that doesn't mean no risk," Dr. Cabaltica said.
Dr. Cabaltica says there are things you can do in combination with the vaccine to help make sure you do not get sick, including seeing a doctor right when developing flu symptoms right away and practicing good hygiene.
"Wash your hands frequently, high touch surfaces need to be cleaned regularly, if you're coughing, cover your mouth, or cough into your elbow, rather than you had a cough in your hand, please wash your hands afterwards," Dr. Cabaltica said.
Dr. Cabaltica is urging *even* those who seem to be at lower risk to get vaccinated to not only protect themselves but to protect those around them and if you start feeling flu like symptoms, to see a doctor as soon as possible.
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Across the largest cities in the U.S., the uptake on flu vaccinations has been split. While an average of 50.7% of people aged 65 and over were inoculated, some cities ranged much higher or lower. When a given years flu vaccines can be matched to the spreading virus strains, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims 40-60% efficacy at reducing flu cases.
With an eye on flu vaccine preferences, SmartAsset analyzed data from Medicare to rank 100 cities based on the percentage of seniors who received the flu shot in 2023.
These Midwestern cities top the list for the highest rates of flu vaccinations. In Madison, WI, 69% of Medicare enrollees were vaccinated for the flu season. In Lincoln and Omaha, NE, that figure was 66% and 63%, respectively. In Minnesota, Minneapolis (62%) and St. Paul (62%) also made the top ranks.
Miami, FL has the lowest rate of flu shots. Only 34% of Miami seniors got the flu vaccine last year. El Paso, TX had the second-lowest rate at 36%, while 39% of seniors in Clark County, NV including Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Enterprise were inoculated.
The cities with the most seniors are split on flu shots. Seniors make up more than 22% of the population in Scottsdale, Port St. Lucie and Honolulu, and theres no distinct preference for or against the flu shot in these places. Respectively, 52%, 48% and 53% of seniors got the flu shot last year.
Madison, Wisconsin Madison leads the ranking with a 69% flu vaccination rate among seniors, who represent approximately 13.5% of the city's population. This adds up to 36,707 residents aged 65 and older.
Lincoln, Nebraska In Lincoln, 66% of seniors have received a flu shot in 2023. Seniors make up 15.3% of the population, which includes 44,656 residents aged 65+.
Omaha, Nebraska Omaha has a senior flu vaccination rate of 63%, with the 65+ demographic comprising 14.4% of its citizens. This adds up to 70,078 seniors.
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Durham, North Carolina Durham reports a 62% vaccination rate among seniors. The city's population includes 13.8% of residents aged 65 and over, which totals 40,228 seniors.
St. Paul, Minnesota Approximately 62% of St. Paul's senior population have been vaccinated against the flu in 2023. Seniors constitute 13.0% of the city's population, with a total of 39,448 residents aged 65+.
Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis also shows a 62% flu vaccination rate in seniors. This age group represents 11.13% of the city's populace with 47,298 seniors.
Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh has a 61% flu vaccination rate among its senior citizens. The 65+ age bracket makes up 12.3% of the population, which adds up to 58,522 seniors.
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis has a 60% flu vaccination rate for seniors, who make up 15.8% of its population. There are 45,176 residents aged 65 and older.
Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore's senior flu vaccination rate stands at 59%, with 89,326 seniors accounting for 15.7% of the population.
Plano, TexasPlano has a 59% vaccination rate among its senior citizens. The 65+ age group makes up 14.30% of the city's population, with a total of 41,479 seniors.
Data is for 2023 and comes from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. The percentage of seniors with the flu shot is represented by the percentage of fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare enrollees that had an annual flu vaccination. Medicare enrollees must be at least 65 years old. Data was examined for the largest 100 cities for which data was available. Cities are mapped to county-level data.
Photo credit: iStock.com/FatCamera
The post Flu Vaccines Are Most Popular in These U.S. Cities 2024 Study appeared first on SmartReads by SmartAsset.
