From Missouri Net News Matthew Pilger
A new flu strain is spreading across Missouri and the U.S., and this year’s vaccine isn’t a perfect match.
MU Health Care infectious disease specialist Dr. Taylor Nelson explained what that means.
“There may be some higher risk of acquiring infection even if you’ve been vaccinated, but there will still be protections generally from severe illness, hospitalization and death,” said Nelson. “So, I think the mismatch is really just in the details of the strain and acquiring infection rather than necessarily an increased risk of severe outcomes.”
Some news headlines are calling it the ‘super-flu.’ Dr. Nelson said it’s known as subclade K.
“I think super flu maybe implies that the virus itself is extra bad, right?” asked Nelson. “And I think at least the data we have to this point doesn’t necessarily support that. It makes people sicker or causes more hospitalizations or more deaths than we’re used to seeing with other strains. So, I think that is a little bit potentially misleading.”
Nelson said flu cases are expected to climb in the coming months.
“I would say over the last week or two, we’ve started to see an increase in cases identified and a small increase of number of hospitalizations, at least within our healthcare system,” said Nelson. “So, I would say it’s just starting to pick up Europe or other places. Certainly, their numbers have also been up. So, I would anticipate a pretty healthy flu season.”
Nelson said health experts will keep monitoring to see how it affects the U.S. in the weeks ahead.
