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A summary of presentations from the weekly Summit partner webinars

February 9 – The latest Summit Summary

Flu Surveillance Update – Alicia Budd (CDC)

Alicia Budd, MPH, Influenza Division, CDC, gave a Flu Surveillance Update through week four, ending January 28. (View slides.)

Virologic Surveillance

Virologic Surveillance – Percent Positive for Influenza

  • Relatively calm
    • Continuing to see flu activity decline
    • Percent positivity continues to decline sharply nationally and in all the regions
  • Viruses are almost exclusively influenza A (99.5%)

Virologic Surveillance – Virus Characteristics

  • H3 predominance
    • 76% H3
    • 24% H1
  • One virus was identified as having reduced inhibition to Oseltamivir this year (1 out of nearly 1,700)
    • Not concerning
    • Was susceptible to other influenza antiviral agents

Outpatient Respiratory Illness – people presenting to outpatient urgent care, primary practice, or emergency department for fever and cough or sore throat

  • Numbers have dropped precipitously and are holding stable just above the national baseline
  • For past several weeks, the two pediatric age groups (0-4 years, 5-24 years) are remaining stable, and the adults are continuing to slowly decline
  • Most of country is seeing low levels of outpatient respiratory illness, with a couple of hot spots. However there are a lot of other respiratory viruses circulating in these areas that could be responsible for these infections

Long-term Care Facilities (LTCF) and Hospitals

HHS Protect – Percent of LTCF that reported at least one influenza positive test among residents

  • Activity continuing to decline nationally and in all regions
  • Hospitalizations continue to decline

FluSurv-NET – Age-specific information

  • Cumulative rate of hospitalizations for the season as a whole:
    • At a plateau nationally
    • Approaching where U.S. was in the 2017–2018 season at this same time (recall that this was a severe influenza season)
      • The 2017–2018 cumulative rate however, was still climbing at this time
    • Currently, the cumulative rate is higher than any of the other seasons, but this is not likely to be true after this week
    • Unless there is another wave, the nation won’t hit the severity in terms of hospital rates as the 2017–2018 season

Mortality – Percent of deaths from pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19 (PIC)

  • PIC deaths attributed to flu has been declining for the past few weeks
  • The percentage of deaths due to flu has been declining for a couple of months
    • COVID-19 deaths are also declining
  • There have been 97 influenza-associated pediatric deaths

Preliminary In-Season Flu Burden Estimates, 2022–2023

  • 25–49 million illnesses
  • 12–23 million medical visits
  • 280–600 thousand hospitalizations
  • 17–53 thousand deaths

Summary

  • Flu activity continues to decline across the country
  • H3N2 remains the predominant virus
  • Declining activity doesn’t mean no activity, so vaccination is still appropriate
  • Surveillance continues year-round
  • Upcoming meetings
    • ACIP on February 22 – Interim VE estimates
    • WHO’s Vaccine Consultation Meeting in Geneva – February 20–24

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