This just in! According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Influenza levels in the U.S. have hit “epidemic” levels and are continuing to rise! So much for the Ebola frenzy and media scare from earlier this year even though Fox News still has their Ebola map and timeline updating live on their website with 19,570 cases worldwide. However, They even have an influenza outbreak map up now for the United States…it’s basically just a map of the U.S. colored completely red…because the flu, unlike Ebola, is everywhere! And can affect anywhere from 5 to 20% of the total U.S. population…annually!
Already this year the proportion of deaths reported in 122 American cities from flu and pneumonia so far has surpassed the typical level for late December at 6.8 percent which is the “epidemic threshold” set by the federal health agency. That means that 6.8% of all those who have the flu are dying from the flu…that’s some very sobering info when you consider that 3 people with Ebola had Americans running for cover and politicians calling for quarantines worldwide. On average, there are about 36,000 flu deaths per year in the United States alone!
Pretty scary, sort of. I have to go to the NY Times to find any info on ebola. The mainstream media seems to have dropped it like a hot potato, I don’t view fox news though. It seems Amrican media only cover illnesses, like the flu or ebola extensively, when people in the US feel potentially threatened. They always need potential disasters hitting home to garner readership.
I think ebola is the worst epidemic outbreak in recent history. I follow the NY Times daily for updates on the latest mortality stats and have my biostats prof husb help me decipher them. It is still raging in Sierra Leone, but seem to be improving in Liberia. It astounds me how little we care.
God Bless the NY Times ( and maybe, who knew? fox news if they are covering it).
Tamiflu is effective against these flu strains. There is no public health anti-viral for ebola. It death rate continues to be astounding.
Thanks for reminding us how terrifying Ebola is for many Africa countries if not for the Western countries right now.
Thanks for this Cindy.
Reblogged this on KO Rural Mad As Hell Blog.
Thank you for putting up an influenza post! I reposted and blogged my own!
And, why have I never got a flu shot? Because I’ve always viewed it as a guessing game — whether they pick the right flu strain(s) to include in the shot. And apparently, this year they guessed wrong.