My Connections Magazine 2018 Winter issue

My Connections Magazine Winter 2018 January, February, and March
The Flu. The rollover epidemic have a shot for a cure.
The terrible 2017-2018 flu season may be starting to wind down, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention said Friday.
But it’s nowhere close to being over, and flu is still widespread in most states, the CDC said on its weekly
report on the annual influenza epidemic.
And more children have died from flu, bringing the total for the year so far to 97.
“It's been a tough season so far this year, but this week we're actually seeing the influenza-like illness
activity beginning to drop,” Dr. Daniel Jernigan, one of the CDC’s top flu experts, told NBC News.
“It looks like the peak of the season may actually be behind us at this point.”
So many people die of flu that they are not counted one by one, except for children. Instead, the CDC
looks at how many deaths are reported from flu-like illness or pneumonia and extrapolates from those.
The latest data, which goes back to the week that ended February 3, showed that 9.5 percent of all
deaths were from flu and pneumonia.
Flu kills between 12,000 and 59,000 people every year in the U.S. alone and puts as many as 700,000
into the hospital. It takes weeks to gather data but this year has shaped up to be on the severe end in
terms of sickness, deaths and hospitalizations.
Source NBC Broadcating corporation.
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