Here Comes the Super Flu |
If it already seems like this year’s flu season is a lot worse than it normally is, that’s because it definitely is. A nasty novel flu variant — which many are labeling a “super flu” — is on the loose globally and now here in the U.S. New York and other parts of the Northeast are getting hit particularly hard, and the worst is probably yet to come. Here’s what to know.
Per the Department of Health, more than 71,000 flu cases were reported in the week ending December 20, which is the most ever recorded in New York in a single week since states began mandatory reporting of flu cases in 2004. It was also a 38 percent increase from the previous week.
That all followed a huge spike in flu activity in New York City, Long Island, and North Jersey in the first week of December. It has also been an early start — about a month early — for this year’s flu season, and infectious-disease experts warn that we haven’t hit the peak yet.
There has also been a lot of anecdotal evidence indicating increased illness across the city, including an uptick in school absences ahead of the holiday break.
The term super flu gets tossed........