With the Christmas holiday right around the corner, respiratory illnesses continue to be a big concern in the medical community, with Chicago’s top doctor saying that the city is seeing a “record-breaking” year for flu cases.
Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, says that the high number of flu cases and hospitalizations is “unusual” for this time of year, with both metrics typically peaking in January and February.
“We’re having a record-breaking year for this point in the year,” she said. “It’s very unusual for us to be seeing as much flu here in Chicago, in Illinois and across the U.S. in December.”
According to reporting from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 23,000 patients were admitted to U.S. hospitals this week because of influenza-like illnesses.
So far this flu season, there have been at least 15 million illnesses, along with 150,000 hospitalizations and an estimated 9,300 deaths.
Officials say that the hospitalization rate this week is higher than it has been in more than a decade during this time of year.
Still, there are select reasons for optimism, as this year’s flu strains have shown to be vulnerable to existing antivirals. Numbers also declined slightly from last week, according to the CDC.
News
In Illinois, the percentage of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness was significantly higher than previous years, at 5.15%. Of those visits, approximately 21.2% of tests returned positive results.
Arwady says that hospitalizations for the flu overtook COVID hospitalizations earlier this month for the first time in the entire pandemic, and says that increases in COVID and flu cases among pediatric patients are genuine causes for concern.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
“We really hit a crisis point already about two weeks ago, where our pediatric hospitals were almost 100% full, and a lot of that was from RSV,” she said. ‘Thankfully that has come down a bit…but influenza is up and then COVID is up as well.”
Arwady is urging Chicago residents to get their flu shots as soon as possible in the event of a post-holiday surge, reminding residents that it takes up to two weeks for vaccines to reach their full efficacy.
