The deadly virus spread to 15 million Americans

While the world is worried about the new corona virus, another virus has infected 15 million Americans across the country and killed more than 8,200 people this season.

The new corona virus, which causes thousands of people globally - and at least eight in the US - is causing countries to close their borders and Americans buy medical masks faster than large retailers can afford. figs.

There is another virus that has infected 15 million Americans across the country and killed more than 8,200 people this season. This is not a new pandemic - it is the flu.

According to CNN, the 2019-2020 flu season is expected to be one of the worst seasons in a decade, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At least 140,000 people have been hospitalized with flu complications, and that number is expected to increase as the flu spreads.

The vial of the Fluvirin flu vaccine is displayed at a pharmacy in San Francisco, January 22.(Photo: Getty).

Influenza has been "attached" for a long time in American life. The familiarity makes underestimating it more dangerous, said Dr. Margot Savoy, chairman of Community and Family Medicine at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine.

"Underestimating all the viral illnesses we tend to get in the winter sometimes makes us too comfortable to think of things as 'just a cold'. We are really underestimating the deadly flu, " she said.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) predicts that at least 12,000 people will die from flu in the US each year. During the 2017-2018 flu season, up to 61,000 people died and 45 million became ill.

In the 2019-2020 season so far, 15 million people in the US have had the flu and 8,200 people have died of the disease, including at least 54 children. The range of flu has increased for 11 consecutive weeks and is likely to continue over the next few weeks.

Savoy said the new character of emerging infections could eclipse the flu. People are less panicked about the flu because health care providers "seem to have control" over them.

"We are afraid of the unknown and we want information about new infections. We cannot quickly say what is really a threat and what is not, so we begin to panic. - usually when we don't need to , " she said.

Flu can be fatal

Dr. Nathan Chomilo, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said that the prevalence of the flu usually reduces its severity, but people should be worried.

"Severe cases of the flu are not mild illnesses. Getting sick with the flu is really miserable," Chomilo said.

A sign calling for flu shots at a Walgreen drugstore in San Francisco, January 22.(Photo: Getty).

Influenza becomes dangerous when a secondary infection appears, resulting in a weakened immune system. Bacterial and viral infections resonate with flu symptoms. People with chronic illness are also at higher risk for flu complications.

Complications include pneumonia, inflammation in the heart and brain and organ failure - in some cases, which can be fatal.

Chomilo, an internal medicine and pediatrician for Park Nicollet Health Services, said this flu season was one of the worst seasons he had seen in Ohio since the H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009. Some of his patients, healthy adults in their 30s, were sent to the Intensive Care Unit and had to use ventilators due to flu complications.

Viruses are always changing

The flu is unpredictable because the virus changes every year. Sometimes, the main strain during the flu season will have a higher level of toxins than in previous years, which may affect the number of people infected and the severity of symptoms.

Most changes in viruses are minor and negligible. Occasionally, influenza undergoes rare antigenic changes, resulting in completely new strains of the virus that the human body has never experienced before.

The body thinks that it knows which virus will appear, so it needs to catch up. But if a virus appears in a completely new version, the gatekeeper - or the immune system - of the body will have difficulty screening for objects to avoid and avoid. Invisible virus can easily enter when the body does not recognize it.

This flu season, there is no sign of antigenic change, the most radical change. But that has happened before, most recently in 2009 with the H1N1 virus. According to the CDC, it has become a pandemic because people have no immunity against it.

The dose of influenza vaccine is prepared for a patient at CVC Pharmacy store in Miami.(Photo: Getty).

To avoid complications from influenza, Savoy, Chomilo and Nolan have the same recommendation: Get vaccinated.

The CDC reports at least 173 million doses of flu vaccines have been used this season so far - about 4 million higher than the number that vaccine manufacturers are expected to provide this season.

However, some people decide to take risks when they are not vaccinated. A 2017 study found that people turned down the flu vaccine because they thought it was ineffective or worried it was unsafe, even though the CDC study showed that the vaccine was effective in reducing the risk. contracted flu to 60% of the population.

According to Chomilo, there are two important reasons for getting the flu vaccine - "Protect yourself and become a good community member."

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