While Ebola was the infectious disease grabbing most of the headlines in the last year, experts say it is actually the flu that should have us most worried domestically. In the closing days of 2014, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially declared that the flu has reached epidemic status in the United States, with 6.8 percent of all deaths observed through the agency’s 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System attributed to pneumonia and flu. Widespread activity was found in 36 states. While epidemic status is reached every year, what infectious disease experts find troubling is the trend toward earlier reports of flu intensity each of the past few years. The high flu activity seen this season is the result of a confluence of factors: an early start to the flu season (the peak has typically occurred in February); relatively low vaccination rates (less than 50 percent of the population, despite recommendations for universal vaccination in everyone over six months of age); and a mismatch between this year’s flu vaccine and the most prevalent circulating virus, influenza A (H3N2). This strain also tends to cause more severe illness than other variants. The last influenza A (H3N2)-predominant season in […]