Flu Season Hits Young Adults The Hardest

Flu Season Hits Young Adults The Hardest

With a more functional vaccine and a less severe spread when compared to other years, the 2014 flu season still proved to be an unusual one. While cases were rarer and less severe when it came to the elderly population, the ones that are generally most affected by the flu, this year’s season showed increased difficulty in cases contracted by young and middle-age adults.

While a general flu season sees a third of the people being admitted in a hospital aged 18 to 64 this season two thirds of the people admitted were young adults, most of them being obese or sufferers of other ailments.

Tom Frieden director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that this year’s data shows that the flu is a serious concern, one that can affect everyone, regardless of age.

According to new data released by the CDC, flu season started in mid-December and peaked a month later in January. The same data shows that the virus is still spreading in some locations of the country and if not handled with care, could get a second wind.

Officials say that the strain that is making people sick is the H1N1 swine flu, first reported back in 2009. They add that while the virus hasn't mutated it has infected a lot of young people that haven’t been vaccinated.

Posted by George Daniels on Sunday February 23 2014, 3:51 AM EDT. Ref: boston. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0