Health Alerts

It is mid flu season with reports that 24 states and New York City were experiencing high rates of influenza-like illnesses (ILI) up to the end of week 4 and a further 10 states and Puerto Rico reported moderate ILI rates. According to the CDC’s FluView, ‘the majority of influenza viruses characterized antigenically and genetically are similar to the cell-grown reference viruses representing the 2018–2019 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccine viruses’. Influenza A viruses predominate. In Canada, the influenza vaccine has been 72% effective this season against the predominant circulating virus, influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, offering “substantial” protection, researchers said. See more at healio.com

Influenza reporting in Japan has spiked with record numbers of flu diagnoses – more than 7.6 million cases this season. As with North America, influenza A viruses are most common.

WASHINGTON State health department is now reporting 49 confirmed measles cases and a further 11 are probable - at least 42 of the confirmed cases were unimmunised. On the east coast, Rockland County’s reported measles cases have risen to 130 since October while in Brooklyn, 64 cases have emerged among the Orthodox Jewish community living in four neighbourhoods. This local outbreak began after several unvaccinated children returning from Israel and the virus then spread locally. Read more.