The CDC reported 22 new influenza-related pediatric deaths Friday, increasing the total number of such deaths to 84 for the 2017-18 flu season.
Here are five things to know.
1. The percentage of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness was 7.5 percent for the week ending Feb. 10. The national baseline for flu-related outpatient visits is 2.2 percent.
"We are not out of the woods yet," CDC flu director Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, said in a statement cited by ABC News. "We are not seeing any increase, and that is encouraging. But there still is a lot of flu happening out there."
2. Forty-eight U.S. states and Puerto Rico reported widespread flu activity for the week ending Feb. 10. Oregon reported regional flu activity; Hawaii, Washington, D.C., and Gaum reported local flu activity; and the U.S. Virgin Islands reported no flu activity for the week.
3. The overall hospitalization rate was 67.9 per 100,000 population for the week ending Feb. 10. The CDC tallied 19,398 laboratory-confirmed flu-associated hospitalizations from Oct. 1, 2017 through Feb. 10, 2018.
4. The most frequently identified virus type in positive specimens continued to be influenza A, with a majority of these cases — 87.4 percent — attributable to the H3N2 strain. This strain is associated with more severe illnesses in the elderly and young children. In total, the CDC has identified 144,910 positive influenza A and B specimens for the 2017-18 flu season.
5. This season's flu vaccine is 36 percent effective against the illness, while the vaccine's H3N2 component is just 25 percent effective, according to CDC estimates released Thursday.
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