Week 12 of the 2015-2016 U.S. flu season saw two states in the “high” range of the influenza-like illness (ILI) activity scale, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
New Jersey was at level 10 on the CDC’s 1-10 scale for the week ending Jan. 2, 2016, and South Carolina was at level 9. The next-most-active state, Texas, was at level 7, putting it in the “moderate” range along with Maryland, which was at level 6, the CDC said.
States in the “low” range were Arizona, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia at level 5 and California, Colorado, and Georgia at level 4. Altogether, there were 24 states at level 2 or higher, according to data from the CDC’s Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network.
Puerto Rico also moved up to level 10 for the week ending Jan. 2 and, in a case of geographic concentration, New York City was at level 6 even though New York State was still at level 1.
The proportion of outpatient visits for ILI nationally was 2.8% at the end of week 12, which is above the national baseline of 2.1%. For comparison, at this point in the 2014-2015 flu season, the proportion of visits for ILI was about 6%, and in 2013-2014 it was around 4.5%.
There were two flu-related pediatric deaths reported during the week, bringing the total to six for the 2015-2016 season. One death was associated with an influenza A (H3) virus and the other was associated with
an influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus. Looking again at previous years, there had been single weeks with at least six pediatric deaths by week 12 in each of the last three seasons, the CDC report showed.