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Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
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Dec 16 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1. It's Friday. Let's talk #flu.
Gonna keep this short because I wrote a story about what today's FluView report from @CDCgov shows. You can read that piece here.
statnews.com/2022/12/16/ear…
2. Nine more children have died from #flu this season; the total to-date is 30. That's number will rise; but it's still well below the total of most pre-Covid flu seasons. Still, as @CDCgov's Lynnette Brammer told me today: “We never like to see that number go up.” Image
3. You can see here how visits to health care providers for #influenza-like illnesses has declined over the past two weeks. You can also see some seasons have a couple of peaks. What will this one look like? Ask me in June. Image
4. #Covid really knocked some other respiratory viruses out of their normal cycles. See how much earlier flu hospitalizations started this fall? But "early" & "severe" aren't chained to each other. The green line (2017-18) was a severe flu season. This season isn't that so far. Image
5. I'm a little worried about this, though. The percentage of long-term care facilities reporting they have flu has risen sharply in recent weeks. #Flu in the frail elderly is really dangerous.
The full FluView is here: cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ Image

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More from @HelenBranswell

Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Dec 9
1. A #flu thread:
#Influenza-like illnesses continue to grip the country. I'd love to know how NH, VT, MI, WV, AK & SK have seemingly evaded what's going on everywhere else so far.
This isn't all flu. But there's a lot of it and far more than is normal so early in the season.
2. Seven more children have died from #flu, bringing to 21 the pediatric flu death total so far this year. Prior to the pandemic somewhere between 100 & 200 kids a year died from flu.
3. So where do things stand with the #flu season? Will it peak early, then decline? We'll know when we know.
It's tempting to look at this epi curve & think the worst is past. But as a @CDCgov flu expert reminded me today, people don't often go to the dr. around holidays.
Read 6 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Dec 2
1. It's Friday. Time for a #flu 🧵
So #influenza-like illness is still rocking the country. This year's epi curve - the one to the far left - is incredibly high & sharp. That's not all flu & it tells us nothing about severity. It does tell us a lot of people have ILIs these days.
2. These data are from @CDCgov's FluView, which covers the week ending Nov. 26. With the intergenerational mixing that went on over Thanksgiving, I'd assume there won't be any abating of activity for the next couple of weeks.
It is extraordinary to see this at this time of year.
3. Two more children have died from #flu, bringing the season's total to 14 so far. There's always a reporting lag so one should expect this number to grow. That said, if lots of kids were dying of flu this fall we'd know it from other sources.
Read 8 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Dec 1
1. A short 🧵 about a report of 5 severe #mpox infections among vaccinated men vaccinated in Belgium published today in @Eurosurveillanc.
This was not an RCT. The Belgium vaccination program didn't try to study efficacy of the vax in recipients. I get why, but ... it's a shame. Image
2. @UKHSA has reported some VE data on #mpox vaccine, which is great. It's here: gov.uk/government/new… But figuring out whether vaccines for rare diseases actually work is hard to do and it will be unfortunate if the world emerges from this outbreak without a clear picture.
3. To the study: 5 MSM received 1 subcutaneous dose each of the #mpox vaccine, 1 post-exposure, 4 because they were part of a high risk group. Two of the men went on to have a second dose, administered intradermally. Image
Read 6 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Nov 28
1. A #flu 🧵
@CDCgov posted the FluView that would have normally gone last Friday today.
Five more children died from flu this fall, in Oct & Nov. They bring to 12 the number of reported pediatric flu deaths so far. There are always reporting delays; this number will grow, sadly Image
2. The country is engulfed in #influenza-like illness, but that means different things in different places. RSV, Covid, #flu, rhinoviruses, etc. @CDCgov says flu activity is elevated around the country. Image
3. I'm curious about what looks like a slowing of the growth of the ILI activity. But too early to read anything into it, especially given the intergenerational mixing that went on over Thanksgiving. Germs would have been shared along with turkey. Image
Read 7 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Nov 23
1. An overdue #Ebola update:
Something appears to be working in Uganda's Ebola Sudan outbreak, though I should stress that all I have to go on right now are data released by the Ugandan government. Per their latest SitRep, there hasn't been a new confirmed case since Nov. 12.
2. No new cases, no new deaths. The outbreak is currently holding at 163 confirmed & probable cases & 77 confirmed and probable deaths. #Ebola
afro.who.int/sites/default/…
3. A chart in the latest #Ebola SitRep shows 4 districts have had their most recent case within the past 2 weeks. The incubation period for Ebola is up to 21 days, so they aren't out of the woods.
These are only confirmed cases; I'm not sure when the last probable case was.
Read 4 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Nov 19
1. A #flu 🧵
Two more children have died from flu this season. They died the week ending Nov. 5. To date there've been 7 pediatric flu deaths so far this season.
2. #Flu activity is crazy high for this time of year. It's key to remember that what's unusual here is the timing; many years flu activity hasn't even started to pick up at this point. This year flu season hit early. Not yet clear how long it will last or how severe it will be.
3. We can see that really clearly in this graphic from this week's FluView, which covers the week ending Nov. 12. This is the cumulative rate of hospitalizations caused by confirmed #flu. This year's activity (red line) is happening way early. Not clear if it will be a bad year.
Read 6 tweets

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