A third straight week of reduced influenza-like illness (ILI) left the U.S. with no states at the highest level of ILI activity for the first time since early February, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The states with the highest activity for the week ending April 2, 2016, were New Jersey and New Mexico, and both were at level 8 on the CDC’s 1-10 scale, putting them on the low end of the “high” range. States in the “moderate” range were Georgia and North Carolina at level 7 and Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Missouri, and Virginia at level 6, according to a report from the CDC’s Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet).
The proportion of outpatient visits for ILI was 2.4% for the week, down from 2.9% the week before but still above the national baseline of 2.1%, the CDC said. The CDC also reported a cumulative rate of 24.4 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations per 100,000 population for the 2015-16 flu season.
There were seven flu-related pediatric deaths reported – all of them occurring during earlier weeks. So far, 40 flu-related pediatric deaths have been reported during the 2015-2016 season, with California having the highest number (9). The CDC said 7.4% of all deaths reported through the 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to pneumonia and influenza. This percentage was above the epidemic threshold of 7.1% for week 13 of the flu season.