CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio Ohio's first pediatric death from the flu this season was a 9-year-old girl in Clermont County, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The press release from ODH did not give any further information about the girl, or when she died.
According to ODH, flu season peaks between December and February. In Ohio, that flu activity has increased since early December and the current activity is considered high. Overall, though, flu-related hospitalizations are below the state's five-year average for this time of the year, with over 900 hospitalizations statewide since the start of flu season.
Each year, Ohio usually experiences between one and six flu-associated pediatric deaths, ODH said.
"If you haven't gotten a flu vaccine, now is a good time," said Bruce Vanderhoff, M.D., MBA, director of ODH. "We are in the heart of flu season and a vaccine may help prevent you or your loved ones from contracting a serious case of the disease.
Pediatric respiratory viruses have also been on the rise in Ohio, with hospitals seeing a surge in children suffering from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other illnesses even before flu season began.
In Warren County, pediatric pneumonia cases have also been high this year, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
In September, Cincinnati Children's Hospital announced employees are now required to wear masks in the hospital after the increased spread and prevalence of multiple respiratory illnesses, such as RSV, the flu and COVID-19.
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Hospitals across Maryland are seeing an increase in patients with respiratory illnesses.Doctors said cases of the flu, COVID-19 and RSV are spiking."Influenza is really increasing, particularly over the last two weeks," Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health virologist Dr. Andy Pekosz said."All of them, you'll often feel very lousy. You'll feel achy, you have a cough, you may have a headache, you might have a scratchy throat. So, they're all very similar in that way," LifeBridge Health Dr. Miriam Alexander said. VACCINE INFO: You can get COVID-19 and flu vaccines at the same time, but should you? Here's what the science says.If you experience any of those symptoms, Alexander said the first step is to figure out what is causing your illness. There are tests for each of the three major viruses as well as antiviral medication to treat the flu and COVID-19."The most urgent thing that people with severe viral infections need is what we call supportive care, which might be oxygen (or) IV fluids, because in general, the antivirals are not magic pills," Alexander said.She said the best ways to prevent getting sick are wearing a mask, washing your hands and getting vaccinated.COVID-19 and flu vaccines are widely available. RSV vaccines are available for pregnant women and people over 60 years old.For kids under two years old, there is a shortage of vaccines.SHORTAGE: An ongoing shortage of the vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus means babies still getting sick. Here's what to do."The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention has tried to put out guidelines to make sure the high-priority groups are the ones targeted to get this, so check with your pediatrician, check with your local pharmacist," Pekosz said.Experts said there are still a few months of the winter virus season to come before things start to ease.Pekosz said if you feel sick, stay home."With both COVID-19, flu and RSV, you can shed the virus and transmit it when you're showing very mild symptoms," he said.Doctors said it's not too late to get vaccinated, but it does take about two weeks for a vaccine to take effect.More videos on RSV:
Hospitals across Maryland are seeing an increase in patients with respiratory illnesses.
Doctors said cases of the flu, COVID-19 and RSV are spiking.
"Influenza is really increasing, particularly over the last two weeks," Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health virologist Dr. Andy Pekosz said.
"All of them, you'll often feel very lousy. You'll feel achy, you have a cough, you may have a headache, you might have a scratchy throat. So, they're all very similar in that way," LifeBridge Health Dr. Miriam Alexander said.
If you experience any of those symptoms, Alexander said the first step is to figure out what is causing your illness. There are tests for each of the three major viruses as well as antiviral medication to treat the flu and COVID-19.
"The most urgent thing that people with severe viral infections need is what we call supportive care, which might be oxygen (or) IV fluids, because in general, the antivirals are not magic pills," Alexander said.
She said the best ways to prevent getting sick are wearing a mask, washing your hands and getting vaccinated.
COVID-19 and flu vaccines are widely available. RSV vaccines are available for pregnant women and people over 60 years old.
For kids under two years old, there is a shortage of vaccines.
"The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention has tried to put out guidelines to make sure the high-priority groups are the ones targeted to get this, so check with your pediatrician, check with your local pharmacist," Pekosz said.
Experts said there are still a few months of the winter virus season to come before things start to ease.
Pekosz said if you feel sick, stay home.
"With both COVID-19, flu and RSV, you can shed the virus and transmit it when you're showing very mild symptoms," he said.
Doctors said it's not too late to get vaccinated, but it does take about two weeks for a vaccine to take effect.
More videos on RSV:
FRIDAY, Dec. 29, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers appear to have discovered a new weapon in the war on a particularly difficult foe.
They have identified a previously unrecognized class of antibodies that seem to be capable of neutralizing multiple strains of the flu virus.
Their findings, recently reported in the journal PLOS Biology, could lead to development of a vaccine that protects more broadly against influenza.
Each year, new vaccines are offered based on experts' best guesses about which strains will dominate. Sometimes they guess right, other times, not so much.
"We need annual influenza virus vaccines to keep pace with continuing viral evolution," the authors said in a journal news release. "Our work suggests that the barriers to eliciting more broadly protective immunity may be surprisingly low."
An array of studies are paving the way for vaccines that protect against multiple strains.
Many are focused on antibodies that can protect against flu subtypes known as H1 and H3 at the same time. These come in multiple strains and cause widespread infection.
Led by Holly Simmons of the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine, researchers in this study zeroed in on one target.
They focused on a small change found in some H1 strains in the sequence of building blocks that makes up hemagglutinin, a protein that plays a key role in the early stage of infection.
Some antibodies that neutralize H3 can also neutralize H1, but not if its hemagglutinin has this change, dubbed the 133a insertion, researchers explained.
Using blood samples from patients, they identified a class of antibodies that can neutralize some H3 strains as well as some H1 strains with or without the 133a insertion.
A vaccine coaxes the immune system to make antibodies that can bind to hemagglutinin and stop it from invading a person's cells. Different antibodies bind to parts of hemagglutinin differently, and the virus also changes over time, resulting in new strains that can evade the old antibodies.
Researchers said this work expands the list of antibodies that could possibly contribute to development of a vaccine with broader protection. It also adds to growing evidence supporting changes in how flu vaccines are manufactured, they added.
More information
Learn more about vaccines at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCE: PLOS Biology, news release, Dec. 21, 2023
The Virginia Department of Health on Thursday announced the states first reported influenza-associated pediatric death for the 2023-24 flu season.
The health department said a child between 5 and 12 years old in Virginias eastern region died from complications associated with flu. To protect the familys privacy, VDH will not provide any further information regarding this death, the agency said in a release.
We at the Virginia Department of Health, are broken hearted and extend our sympathies to the family of this child during this difficult time, state Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Shelton said in the release. Even though the flu is common, it can cause serious illness and even death. I urge everyone who is eligible to receive the flu vaccine to do so not only to protect themselves, but to protect those around them.
Virginia reported five influenza-associated deaths among children during the 2022-23 flu season.
VDH recommends taking three actions to prevent the flu.
Influenza activity is elevated and is expected to increase in Virginia as the weather becomes colder.
For the week ending Dec. 23, emergency department and urgent care visits due to flu-like illness are very high (6.9% of total visits), especially among young children and school-aged children (14.7% and 13.2% of visits, respectively).
The 2023-24 flu season in Virginia is anticipated to be in the typical range of severity. However, even typical seasons vary widely and result in illness, hospitalizations and death, the release said.
"Virginia vaccination coverage for flu remains low for children and adults. The percent of eligible Virginians reporting receipt of a flu vaccine this season is only 27%," the VDH said.
Arecent studyestimated that flu vaccination reduced the risk of flu-related emergency department and urgent care visits by almost half and hospitalization by more than a third among U.S. adults during the 2022-23 season, the release said.
To locate a seasonal flu vaccine near you, you can visitwww.vaccinate.virginia.govor contact your local health department. For further information, call (804) 864-8141.
Visit the VDHRespiratory Diseaseswebsite for current data updates and additional information about respiratory diseases in Virginia.
NORFOLK, Va. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) announced the state's first reported pediatric death linked to influenza for the 2023-24 flu season.
The VDH said the child was between 5 and 12 years old and was in Virginia's Eastern region, which includes Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore. To protect the family's privacy, the VDH offered no other details about the child's death.
"We at the Virginia Department of Health, are broken-hearted and extend our sympathies to the family of this child during this difficult time," State Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Shelton said in a news release on Thursday. "Even though the flu is common, it can cause serious illness and even death. I urge everyone who is eligible to receive the flu vaccine to do so not only to protect themselves, but to protect those around them."
According to the latest data from the VDH, the Commonwealth is seeing very highflu activity. Unsurprisingly, many of the cases they are seeing are sick children. Data shows nearly 15% of patients are 4 years old and younger.
The VDH investigated seven flu outbreaks last week, three of which happened in K-12 schools.
Dr. Elizabeth Broderick told 13News Now that shes seen an increase in flu, strep, and RSV patients in her office at the Childrens Clinic.
In the last, Id say four weeks, for us, flu has really kicked in. And the kids looked so pitiful You can tell they feel terrible," she said.
Dr. Broderick said there are a few easy ways to protect yourself from getting the flu.
First, stay vigilant in washing your hands. She also said if youre going to be in a crowded place, its not a bad idea to mask up, especially if youre high risk.
Dr. Broderick said the best protection is to get the flu vaccine.
To a pediatrician, one childs death is too many. So, were all about prevention. Use your seatbelt, use a car seat, wear a bike helmet, get a flu vaccine every year, she said.
The CDC recommends flu vaccines for everyone six months and older. To find a flu vaccine near you, visit this website and enter your location or contact your local health department.
More information on the flu, RSV, COVID-19, and other respiratory diseases can be found on the VDH's website.
Its especially important that you get a flu shot if you have cancer.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Mayo Clinic recommend a yearly flu vaccination for everyone 6 months and older, with rare exceptions. Vaccination is your best defense against flu. If you havent gotten your flu shot yet, nows the time.
For most people, influenza, or the flu, resolves on its own. But sometimes the flu and its complications can be deadly. People at higher risk of developing flu complications include young children, pregnant women and those two weeks postpartum, people over 65, people with weakened immune systems and some chronic illnesses, and people who are obese.
Having cancer, being treated for cancer or being a cancer survivor increase your risk for flu complications. For people at high risk, flu complications can include pneumonia, heart problems and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Pneumonia is one of the most serious complications as it can be deadly for older adults and people with a chronic illness.
What is the flu?
What many people call the flu is actually viral gastroenteritis, or stomach flu, which is characterized by diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal cramps and pain. Influenza is the true flu. Its a viral infection that attacks your respiratory system, including your nose, throat and lungs.
At first, flu may seem like a common cold, with a runny nose, sneezing and sore throat. But while colds usually develop slowly, flu tends to come on suddenly. And although a cold can be a bother, you usually feel much worse with flu.
How to keep yourself healthy
Unlike the common cold and stomach flu, there is a vaccine for flu. While its not 100% effective, getting vaccinated for flu can reduce your risk of becoming infected with flu, and lessen its severity and lower your risk of hospitalization if you are infected.
In addition to vaccination, its also important to take several measures to reduce the spread of infection, including:
Wash your hands. Washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is an effective way to prevent many common infections. Or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers if soap and water arent available.
Avoid touching your face. Specifically, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth to prevent spreading viruses.
Cover your coughs and sneezes. Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow. Then wash your hands.
Clean surfaces. Regularly clean often-touched surfaces to prevent spread of infection from touching a surface with the virus on it and then your face.
Avoid crowds. The flu spreads easily wherever people gather in child care centers, schools, office buildings, auditoriums and public transportation.
Good news: This years flu vaccine appears to be particularly effective at preventing severe cases.
Bad news: Only about 40% of Americans eligible for flu shots have received one.
More good news: Theres still time to get protected before the virus peaks in Oklahoma, said Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation physician-scientist Hal Scofield, M.D.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza affects, on average, about 8% of the U.S. population each year. The virus annually kills about 35,000 Americans and sends another 450,000 to the hospital. Young children, people 65 years and older, and those with chronic medical conditions such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes are at greatest risk of severe disease.
In the Southern Hemisphere, flu season runs about six months ahead of ours, which provides us with a window into the severity and most common strain as well as the effectiveness of the vaccine, said Scofield, who also is associate chief of staff for research at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center.
This year, the vaccine appears to be a great match for the virus, Scofield said. Although complete data isnt available yet, Australian health authorities reported that this years vaccine significantly reduced the risk of ending up in the doctors office from the flu.
According to the CDC, pharmacies and doctors offices had administered about 51 million doses of adult vaccine as of Nov. 25 13% below the same time last year. Similarly, the percentage of U.S. children who had received flu shots through early December was lower than at the same time for the past four years.
A survey conducted in August by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases found 65% agreement among American adults that an annual flu shot is the best prevention, yet 43% didnt plan to get one or were unsure if they would get one this year. Among those in the latter group, 32% cited concern about side effects.
The most common flu vaccine side effects are soreness, redness or swelling at the injection site, and sometimes, low-grade fever.
But, according to OMRF Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer Judith James, M.D., Ph.D., none of this is cause for alarm.
Its your body developing protective immunity, and compared to contracting the flu, its nothing.
James added that many fear getting a flu shot can cause the flu.
The vaccine is made from proteins, not the virus, said James, a member of the National Academy of Medicine and chair of OMRFs Arthritis and Clinical Immunology Research Program. It isnt possible to get the flu from the vaccine.
She noted that the flu vaccine typically reaches full effectiveness in two weeks. As of the first week of December, Oklahoma flu activity is low, but increasing. According to the CDC, flu rates are high in neighboring states of Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and rising in Arkansas.
Vaccination is your best defense, along with practicing smart health hygiene, James said. Stay home if you feel ill, wash your hands frequently and cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough.
A one-size-fits-all flu vaccine could be on the horizon after scientists found an antibody that protects against several strains of the virus. The team from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine identified a class of antibodies previously unrecognized that can neutralize different forms of flu.
Flu vaccines are inactivated or weakened viral strains injected into the body to trigger an immune response. This response prepares your body to fight actual flu viruses, potentially preventing or lessening the severity of illness if you encounter them.
At the moment the most dominant strain is predicted and a vaccine is produced to protect against it but the new breakthrough could see an end to that. Antibodies are immune system proteins that protect against disease and a vaccine prompts the immune system to make them.
The antibodies bind to a viral protein called hemagglutinin on the outside of an invading flu virus, blocking it from entering a persons cells. But different antibodies bind to different parts of hemagglutinin which itself evolves over time, leading to new strains that outwit old antibodies. Two flu subtypes known as H1 and H3 come in multiple strains and scientists have been focused on these to produce a universal vaccine.
The current study found that although some antibodies were effective against H1 and H3, they failed if the hemagglutinin is carrying what they call the 133a insertion. The team, writing in the journal PLOS Biology, says they have found the new antibodies that can neutralize H1 and H3 whether they have the 133a insertion or not. They carried out their experiments on blood taken from patients.
We need annual influenza virus vaccines to keep pace with continuing viral evolution. Our work suggests that the barriers to eliciting more broadly protective immunity may be surprisingly low, said Lead author and research assistant Holly Simmons.
Given the right series of influenza virus exposures/vaccinations, it is possible to for humans to mount robust antibody responses that neutralize divergent H1N1 and H3N2 viruses, opening new avenues to design improved vaccines, she added.
This research expands the list of antibodies that could potentially contribute to development of a flu virus that achieves broader protection through an assortment of molecular mechanisms, she continued.
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
WOODLAND Health officials in one Northern California county are once again urging residents to mask up and get vaccinated.
The advisory, released Wednesday by Yolo County Public Health, comes amid data that shows high levels of the COVID-19 virus in wastewater. High levels of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are also being detected.
As CBS13 reported on Tuesday, COVID-19 cases have been climbing again in Northern California with hospitalizations also increasing.
A new, possibly more contagious COVID variant labeled JN.1 is the likely driver behind the spike.
"I recommend that everybody in the community take steps to protect themselves from infection, including wearing a high-quality mask when indoors around others," said Yolo County's Public Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson in a statement on Wednesday.
Yolo was one of several Northern California counties identified by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention in last week's data showing the highest level of COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state. Coupled with Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo, the region has 246 hospital admissions.
UC Davis researchers have been at the forefront of tracking COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic by testing the city's wastewater treatment plant.
Cecilio Padilla is a writer for CBS13 News and a Sacramento area native.
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Vaccines ensure bouts of COVID are far less deadly than they were at the pandemic's start, yet multiple studies now suggest even seemingly mild cases of the coronavirus have a cost. With every single infection, our risk of long COVID increases.
While this risk starts (relatively) low for most of us, particularly those vaccinated and in younger people or children, there are concerning signs it may not stay low. If each new invasion of our bodies allows this insidious virus a greater chance to cause damage, such small risks will eventually add up to a big one.
Even if you only experience the symptom of the initial infection mildly.
"Each subsequent COVID infection will increase your risk of developing chronic health issues like diabetes, kidney disease, organ failure and even mental health problems," physician Rambod Rouhbakhsh warned journalist Sara Berg in an American Medical Association podcast earlier this year.
"This dispels the myth that repeated brushes with the virus are mild and you don't have to worry about it. It is akin to playing Russian roulette."
Long COVID is defined as a multisystem disease that have a devastating effect on any organ system, with potentially lifelong consequences. Rates of long COVID among people who have contracted SARS-CoV-2 vary controversially between studies and regions, from about 10 percent to a staggering 50 percent of people who've had the virus reported as having long term symptoms.
Global estimates suggest 65 million people now suffer from long COVID. Luckily, children currently appear to be impacted at much lower rates, but they're not entirely spared either.
So epidemiologist Benjamin Bowe and colleagues followed 138,818 US veterans with SAR-CoV-2 infections across 2 years, to learn more. Their data demonstrates that on reinfection patients had increased risk of long COVID in multiple organ systems.
The adverse health effects from two infections are worse than one, and three infections worse than two, the researchers explain. This means long COVID is cumulative, at least within this group of people and with this number of re-infections.
As their research is only based on US veterans affairs patients, it may not translate to everyone, but this is not the only study to find this concerning trend.
A study with much broader sampling involving people aged 18 and over across 10 Canadian provinces points to the same conclusion:
"The study adds to a growing body of evidence around the association between COVID-19 reinfection and the reporting of long-term symptoms," McGill University statistician Sianne Kuang and team write.
Another study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, used data recorded from 1.5 million people in the US to compare severities of initial and subsequent infections. They also note an increase in long COVID after reinfections in the variants following Delta and Omicron.
Whether this is down to reinfection in general or due to changes in newer SARS-Cov-2 strains is still unclear. What's more, Kuang and team caution the studies demonstrating this increase in risk are still "limited in number and generalizability."
However we also know the virus changes our immune systems. It preys on our memory T cells which are critical in forming long term immunity. SARS-Cov-2 forces its way into these cells and causes them to activate the cell's self-destruction programming and essentially implode.
Whether we experience a mild or severe COVID infection, COVID depletes our T cells. This is only one of the long term consequences of COVID, and may contribute to more severe and frequent outbreaks of other diseases like pneumonia and RSV.
Now, approaching the holiday season, wastewater testing indicates many countries, including in the US, are experiencing large new surges of COVID infections. Higher than ever in some places like Germany.
It seems allowing this rapidly mutating pathogen to run rampant has provided it with the perfect laboratory to keep testing out random gene mutations until SARS-CoV-2 stumbles on one that can get past our next line of defenses and out-competes the other strains.
The new JN.1 strain, also called Pirola, has managed just that. A single mutation appears to have made it harder for our immune systems to capture and thwart, meaning past vaccines and infections are no longer as protective.
Early signs indicate the most updated XBB.1.5 vaccines may have better luck against Pirola.
In light of long COVID possibly being cumulative, many of those involved with the disease, from clinicians and scientists to disability advocates and journalists, are so concerned they've signed an open letter to US President Biden urging for more support for the people facing this condition.
