A child in Florida is the first person to die from the flu this season and health officials said the child had not been vaccinated for the flu.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said flu activity in Michigan is “sporadic” with 30 cases of flu or flu-like illnesses were reported across the state in the first week of October.
While the overall numbers are low, Dr. David Davenport, the Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Ascension Borgress Hospital, said the early influenza activity is cause for some concern, because the CDC recommends people get flu vaccines before Oct. 31 and it seems many still have not.
Influenza nearly impossible predict. How bad this flu season will be is unclear.
Davenport said, “We seem to have seen more and more severe flu seasons.”
The season is off to an early start and Davenport recommends people to get their flu shots sooner rather than later.
He said, “Like the weather influenza is hard to predict but it seems to coming early and like the weather we’re seeing more severe complications and hospitalizations.”
During the 2017 flu season, 40 percent of the Michigan population received a flu vaccine. Kalamazoo county was just below the statewide vaccination rate.
For an illness that could end in the hospital or death, Davenport said those numbers aren’t great.
He said, “We still have a long ways to go with getting people to get vaccinated.”
Davenport said the flu vaccine drastically decreases the chance of complications.
He said, “And significantly reduces your chance of dying from influenza.”
2017 was the worst flu epidemic the U.S. has seen in four decades, about 80,000 people died, which is nearly double the number of people killed in car crashes.
Davenport said, “And that’s why the flu vaccine is mandated from schools now, there are religious and medical exception.”
Last flu season 183 children in the U.S. died from the flu and or flu-related causes. According to the CDC, 80 percent of those kids were not vaccinated.
Davenport said a lot of the skepticism surrounding flu vaccines is spread on social media and that the more people who don’t get flu shots the higher the risk of a severe and deadly flu season.