Why Is This Year's Flu So Dangerous for Young Adults?

[xchrom]

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/01/is-it-too-late-to-get-a-flu-shot

Is the flu widespread where I live?
Probably:



How many people have died so far this year?
Twenty-eight children have died so far. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not keep track of adult deaths. That's because states are not required to report flu deaths to the CDC. Older adults often die of flu complications or secondary infections rather than the flu itself, so tracking flu deaths is not an exact science. That said, in California, the death toll is currently at 146, including 95 people under the age of 65. At this time last year, just 9 Californians under 65 had died of the flu, and by the end of the season, a total of 106 people had died.

How does this year's season compare to last year's?
As the chart below shows, so far, this season is milder in terms of number of cases. However, CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald notes that more people between the ages of 18 and 64 have been hospitalized for flulike symptoms this year than in previous years. This season's predominant virus strain is H1N1—which, when it originated in 2009, also sent an unusually high number people in the 18-to-64 age range to the hospital. Epidemiologists don't know why H1N1 hits younger people hard, but one theory, says McDonald, is that older adults have built up more immunity to it. H1N1 is similar to the virus that caused the Spanish Flu of 1918, and also to strains that circulated in the '60s and '70s. Another possible factor: Only about 30 percent of younger adults get flu shots, compared to about 40 percent of older adults.

[SheilaT]

1. Keep in mind that the main reason older people

were far less likely to get flu in the terrible 1918 epidemic was that a similar strain had been out there some fifty years earlier, and anyone older than that had probably already been exposed.

Basically there are three different types of flu, unimaginatively named types A, B, and C. The Type A flu is the most virulent and deadly, type C quite mild, with B in between. All, or nearly all of the deadly flu epidemics have been a type A. I'm 65, and I clearly remember the Asian flu of 1957, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69. Both were type A and both were pretty bad outbreaks. I know I didn't get the flu in 68 or 69, but I can recall getting flu about ten years earlier. Which means I have a pretty strong immunity to almost any similar flu. Kind of like the older adults nearly a century ago. Younger folks who haven't been exposed or had a flu shot are going to be quite vulnerable.