A funny thing happened during the mandatory melee

January 12th, 2015

As the Great Debate about mandatory flu shots for health care workers reached fever pitch, we retreated to a neutral corner to take a blow and get the cuts closed, only to be doused in the kisser with a cold question: Hey, what happened to flu season?! Be it a mild virus, a perfect vaccine, a CDC conspiracy, or a late-breaking season, there just is not much flu infection to speak of. Just about anywhere. We’ve gone from Raging Bull to All Quiet on the Western Front. At the end of February, typically the peak of the influenza season, there were only regional and sporadic cases of flu in most of the United States. “One year ago, a vast majority of states were reporting widespread activity,” Lisa Grohskopf, MD, MPH, a medical officer with the Influenza Division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a federal advisory panel. Grohskopf and her infectious disease colleagues were reluctant to declare the flu season over before it began. In some years, the flu season has a delayed start, they warn. As of mid-February, only 14% of influenza-like illness tested positive for influenza, and only three pediatric deaths had been attributed to influenza in 2011-2012. By contrast, there were 122 flu-related pediatric deaths reported in 2010-2011 and 282 such deaths in 2009-2010. “I’ve just been totally amazed not only in terms of flu surveillance, but in flu morbidity and mortality,” said Jonathan Temte, MD, PhD, a family medicine physician, professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison and a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP). This year, Temte said he has seen fewer hospitalized patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, which may indicate fewer complications from influenza. The 2011-2012 vaccine was identical to the one in 2010-2011, as the same strains continued to circulate. Meanwhile, ACIP had recommended universal vaccination of everyone over the age of 6 months, and retail pharmacies heavily marketed the flu vaccine. The resulting high vaccine coverage may have resulted in a very mild flu season, the infectious disease experts suggested. --Writer Michelle Marill contributed to this story