Aug. 24--ATLANTA -- After the pandemic flu of last season, this year's flu season will look completely different, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The CDC held a briefing Monday on the outlook for the upcoming influenza season.
From April 2009 to April of this year, the CDC estimates that 61 million people were sickened by the pandemic influenza A H1N1 virus, with 274,000 hospitalizations and 12,470 deaths, including 344 children, said Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the deputy director of the Influenza Division for the CDC.
Though the CDC often uses an estimate of 36,000 flu deaths a year, Director Thomas Frieden cautioned that the estimate is done using both direct and indirect causes of death from flu, while the pandemic figures come from deaths directly attributed to the new virus.
"Certainly, compared to 1918 (the Spanish flu epidemic) it was very mild," he said. "Compared to an average flu season, it is far from clear that it was mild in that sense."
In particular, the child deaths would be five times what would be expected in a normal season, Frieden said.
The pandemic virus will be part of the vaccine for this flu season. Also included will be a new influenza A H3N2 Perth strain that did not circulate in the U.S. last year but has already popped up this summer, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
"We think the prediction is likely to be very good" this flu season, Schuchat said.
For the first time this year, the CDC is recommending that everyone over the age of 6 months be vaccinated.
"We really are trying to keep it simple this year for the providers and the public," Schuchat said.
People at high risk from complications from the flu, such as those with diabetes or asthma, might have been confused in the past about whether they really needed the vaccine.
Unlike last year, when the federal government bought and distributed the vaccine against pandemic influenza A H1N1, this year it will go back to providing about 10-12 percent, mostly through the Vaccine for Children program.
The remainder of the estimated 165 million doses will be provided through the private sector. That will make it harder for the CDC and public health to track vaccine supply and distribution, Schuchat said.
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