A deadly virus is spreading from state to state and has infected 26 million Americans so far.

[Spartan]

The novel coronavirus that's sickening thousands globally -- and at least 15 people in the US -- is inspiring countries to close their borders and Americans to buy up surgical masks quicker than major retailers can restock them.

There's another virus that has infected at least 26 million Americans across the country and killed at least 14,000 people this season alone. It's not a new pandemic -- it's influenza.

 

The 2019-2020 flu season, which began September 29, is projected to be one of the worst in a decade, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At least 250,000 people have been hospitalized with complications from the flu, and that number is predicted to climb as flu activity swirls.

The flu is a constant in Americans' lives. It's that familiarity that makes it more dangerous to underestimate, said Dr. Margot Savoy, chair of Family and Community Medicine at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine.

 

 

"Lumping all the viral illness we tend to catch in the winter sometimes makes us too comfortable thinking everything is 'just a bad cold,'" she said. "We underestimate how deadly influenza really is."

 

Even the low-end estimate of deaths each year is startling, Savoy said: The Centers for Disease Control predicts at least 12,000 people will die from the flu in the US every year. In the 2017-2018 flu season, as many as 61,000 people died, and 45 million were sickened.

 

In the 2019-2020 season so far, at least 26 million people in the US have gotten the flu and at least 14,000 people have died from it, including at least 92 children. Flu activity has been widespread in nearly every region, with high levels of activity in 48 states and Puerto Rico, the CDC reported this week.

Savoy, who also serves on the American Academy of Family Physician's board of directors, said the novelty of emerging infections can overshadow the flu. People are less panicked about the flu because healthcare providers "appear to have control" over the infection.

 

"We fear the unknown and we crave information about new and emerging infections," she said. "We can't quickly tell what is truly a threat and what isn't, so we begin to panic -- often when we don't need to."

[quickgun_murugun]

Em virus @chitti vuncle ?? 

[Hyper]

Nenu couple people Ni chusthuna... Ma community lo Indians ...they used to cough with low voice ..now voice is fine but still having cough ...doctor asked them have a breathing mask...wierd...can't ask them if they had this flu

[Spartan]

1 minute ago, quickgun_murugun said:

Em virus @chitti vuncle ?? 

Flu

[phoeniix]

flu is quite common

[hydusguy]

I doubt number is exaggerated and not true.  

[quickgun_murugun]

5 minutes ago, Spartan said:

Flu

@aathcare no?

[HEROO]

8 minutes ago, quickgun_murugun said:

Em virus @chitti vuncle ?? 

Influenza type A and type B

[HEROO]

4 minutes ago, quickgun_murugun said:

@aathcare no?

Aathulu tho paatu anni pothay care cheyyakunte influenza type b is swine flu i think

already 2000 kids died in usa this yr

[sureshkonda]

Oregano oil baga pani chesthadi anta

[quickgun_murugun]

13 hours ago, HEROO said:

Influenza type A and type B

Damn ... vaccines leva ? 

[Kootami]

this year is the worst vayya. flu is baaga undi . Even my kid got sick more than 2 times in two months. Virus kabattti there is no medicine

[Captain_nd_Coke]

14 minutes ago, Kootami said:

this year is the worst vayya. flu is baaga undi . Even my kid got sick more than 2 times in two months. Virus kabattti there is no medicine

Tamiflu istaru ga... anti viral adi

[chicchara]

take high amounts of Lemon-Ginger and other defence foods everyday. 

 

[HEROO]

4 hours ago, quickgun_murugun said:

Damn ... vaccines leva ? 

flu shot is the only option for now it seems