Sunday, August 15, 2010

[californiadisasters] Swine Flu Epidemic Over...Now Back To Typical Flu



Health officials plan for next flu season with H1N1 history

Erin Allday, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, August 15, 2010

This time last year, doctors and public health leaders were anticipating one of the worst flu seasons in decades, as hundreds of thousands of children returned to school with no protection from a new influenza virus that was rapidly spreading around the world.

But it's an entirely different story this year. Global health officials declared the swine flu pandemic officially over last week. And epidemiologists say the Bay Area and the rest of the United States probably will see a normal flu season this year - that means two or three strains will circulate, probably starting around midwinter.

The swine flu - a form of influenza Type A, subtype H1N1 - will almost certainly be one of those strains, but it won't necessarily be the predominant strain and it isn't expected to spread as widely as it did last year. That's because so many people either were vaccinated and are protected or were infected by the virus last year and are now immune to it.

But influenza is a notoriously unpredictable virus, and what will actually happen this season is still a guessing game, flu experts say.


--
Check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/
Read our blog at http://eclecticarcania.blogspot.com/
Visit me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/derkimster



__._,_.___


Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.



Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)