Doctors’ visits for flu highest in 15 years, most since swine flu pandemic: CDC
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(NEW YORK) — Outpatient health care visits for flu illnesses are at their highest levels in 15 years, according to data updated Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly 8% of outpatient health care visits for respiratory illnesses are due to flu-like illness, which is the highest seen since the 2009-10 flu season, during the swine flu pandemic, data shows.
During the week ending Feb. 1, 8% of emergency department visits were due to flu compared with 3.2% the same time last year, according to the CDC data.
Additionally, 31.6% of tests came back positive for flu during the week ending Feb. 1 compared to a peak of 18.2% last season, CDC data shows.
“Given the sharp rise [of flu illnesses] particularly among young children and in key regions like New York City, this is a stark reminder of how unpredictable flu seasons can be,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“With [influenza-like illness] rates exceeding 10% in several states and hospitalization rates climbing in older adults, this wave could put significant pressure on our health systems in the coming weeks,” he added.
What’s more, the rate of people dying from flu is now equal to the rate of people dying from COVID-19, likely for the first time since the COVID pandemic began.
The CDC estimates there have been at least 24 million illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 13,000 deaths from flu so far this season.
At least 57 pediatric flu deaths have been reported so far this season, with 10 reported during the week ending Feb. 1.
Flu vaccines are available for both children and adults, but vaccination coverage remains low, meaning “many children and adults lack protection from respiratory virus infections provided by vaccines,” according to the CDC.
Data shows only 45% of adults aged 18 and older have been vaccinated against flu this season as have 45.7% of children.
CDC data also shows that overall respiratory illness activity is listed as “very high” nationwide. Currently, 12 states are listed as “very high” and 19 states are listed as “high.”
By comparison, seven states were listed as “very high” and 20 states were listed as “high” last week.
Although COVID-19 activity is “elevated” in many areas of the U.S., CDC data shows emergency department visits are at low levels and the number of laboratory tests coming back positive is falling.
Respiratory syncytial virus activity was also described as “elevated” but declining in most areas of the U.S., according to the CDC.
(WASHINGTON) — On the heels of a new report showing that rates of autism diagnoses have again increased, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was determined to find the “environmental exposures” behind the rise and directed the National Institute of Health to launch new studies into “everything” — from mold to obesity — that could potentially be a factor.
Kennedy, who prioritizes autism as one of the chronic illnesses he’s determined to tackle in his aim to “Make America Healthy Again,” ardently pushed back against the explanation that a broadening definition of autism spectrum disorder is a meaningful contributor to more autism diagnoses.
Kennedy said he wanted to “move away” from the idea that “the autism prevalence increases — the relentless increases — are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria.”
“This epidemic denial has become a feature in the mainstream media, and it’s based on an industry canard. And obviously there are people who don’t want us to look at environmental exposures,” Kennedy said, speaking at a press conference at the department headquarters on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The report Kennedy mentioned — published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — estimated that autism prevalence has increased to 1 in 31 children, which Kennedy called “shocking.”
In 2020, the same report found a prevalence of 1 in 36, and over two decades ago in 2000, the rate was 1 in 150.
Experts in the field agree that the rates of diagnoses are increasing and that environmental factors could be at play — but also say most of the increase can be attributed to the expanding definition of autism, which broadened dramatically in recent decades to include subtler features of the illness, including new descriptors as recently as 2013.
“It’s a fair question” to ask why autism prevalence has increased, Dr. Catherine Lord, a psychologist and autism researcher at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, told ABC News, but she said that it’s also important to acknowledge how much has changed.
“There’s been a huge shift in terms of awareness of autism, particularly awareness of autism without severe intellectual disability, that really changed even since I entered this field,” said Lord.
Studies also suggest that autism risk is heavily rooted in genetics, by as much as 80%.
Dr. Walter Zahorodny, a clinical psychologist and professor who studies autism at Rutgers University, joined Kennedy at Tuesday’s press conference to emphasize that there has been a “true increase” in cases, something he said he has seen throughout his career in New Jersey — though he acknowledged, unlike Kennedy, a wider variety of possibilities, from environmental exposures to other “risk factors.”
“It is a true increase. There is better awareness of autism, but better awareness of autism cannot be driving disability like autism to increase by 300% in 20 years,” Zahorodny said, referring to studies from New Jersey and the CDC report.
Zahorodny said finding the cause was crucial and lamented a lack of progress to “address this question seriously” over his career.
“I would urge everyone to consider the likelihood that autism, whether we call it an epidemic, tsunami or a surge of autism, is a real thing that we don’t understand, and it must be triggered or caused by environmental or risk factors,” he said.
Kennedy on Tuesday acknowledged that the increase in autism diagnoses could be in part caused by increased awareness, but said that still left a large portion of the jump in diagnoses unaccounted for.
He called it “indefensible” to accept awareness as the main reason, describing high stakes of ruined families and “individual tragedy.”
“Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this,” Kennedy said. “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
“We have to recognize we are doing this to our children, and we need to put an end to it,” he added.
Not every case is as severe as Kennedy described, however; many people diagnosed with autism live highly functional adult lives. The recent CDC report found fewer than 40% of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were classified as having an intellectual disability, meaning an IQ of less than 70.
Dr. Barry Prizant, an adjunct professor in the department of communicative disorders at the University of Rhode Island and director of the private practice Childhood Communication Services, told ABC News that Kennedy’s comments misrepresent what autism is like for families.
“I am not dismissing the challenges. There are considerable challenges, and a lot of those are barriers to services,” he said. “We’ve been doing a parent retreat weekend for 27 years, where we spend a weekend with 60 parents and family members, and we’re not meeting with family members and parents who say, ‘Autism is just a tragedy and it’s hell in our lives.’ They talk about the positives and the negatives, the joys as well as the challenges.”
Autism Speaks also released a statement on Wednesday, calling Kennedy comments “extremely disappointing and damaging.”
“Autism is not a preventable condition,” the nonprofit autism organization said. “The suggestion that it is—especially when linked to environmental toxins without scientific evidence—contributes to decades-old misinformation and distracts from the real needs of autistic people and their families.”
Kennedy said the NIH, led by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a former professor at Stanford University, will soon announce a series of new studies aimed at identifying precisely which environmental toxins are to blame. Kennedy cited mold, food, pesticides, medicines, ultrasounds, and the age and health of parents as possible culprits.
Kennedy qualified that the study would provide “some of the answers” by September, which is a variation — welcomed by experts — from his claim to President Donald Trump last week that “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic.”
However, he also claimed on Tuesday: “We know it’s an environmental exposure.”
Asked by ABC News if he would commit to following the science revealed by the studies, regardless of his current expectations on what’s causing the rise in diagnosis, the secretary said yes.
“We’re going to follow the science no matter what it says,” he said.
Medical experts have been studying the potential causes of autism for decades. Research to date suggests that autism is driven by genetics, and the risk may increase when paired with certain outside factors, such as having children at an older age or exposure to pollutants.
“It’s not simple,” Lord said. “If you look at high-quality publications, the findings are small and, in terms of causes other than the genetics, have been quite hard to replicate. Not meaning they’re wrong, but just that we haven’t quite figured out what they should be.”
HHS or NIH have not provided details about how the new studies will be conducted within the given timeframe, but Kennedy pledged transparency, saying the studies would be conducted in the traditional way of funding to academic institutions through the NIH.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring an unknown disease that has killed dozens in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said in a statement on Monday.
“CDC is monitoring the situation closely and engaging with DRC officials on what support the agency can offer,” the agency’s spokesperson said.
At least 1,096 people have been sickened and 60 people have died from the disease, the World Health Organization said Thursday in its most recent update.
This is the third time in the past few months officials have identified increases in illness and deaths in a different area of Congo, triggering “follow-up investigations to confirm the cause and provide needed support,” the WHO said in a statement on Thursday.
For example, there was a separate report of an unknown disease in December of last year in the central African country that was later attributed to illnesses from malaria and respiratory illnesses.
The symptoms for this latest cluster of disease include fever, headache, chills, sweating, stiff neck, muscle aches, multiple joint pain and body aches, a runny or bleeding from the nose, cough, vomiting and diarrhea, the WHO said.
Initial lab tests have been negative for Ebola and Marburg virus disease, the WHO said.
Around half of samples tested have been positive for malaria, which is common in the area, according to the WHO. Tests continue to be carried out for meningitis, and officials said they are also looking into food and water contamination.
The WHO said it has delivered emergency medical supplies, including testing kits and “developed detailed protocols to enhance disease investigation.”
“The WHO is supporting the local health authorities reinforce investigation and response measures, with more than 80 community health workers trained to detect and report cases and death,” the organization said.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The number of measles cases linked to an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 90, according to new data released on Friday.
Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, and 16 people have been hospitalized so far, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Five cases included those who have been vaccinated.
A DSHS spokesperson previously told ABC News that this marks the largest measles outbreak in the state in more than 30 years.
Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases with 51, followed by 26 cases among children ages 4 and under.
Gaines County is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 57 cases confirmed among residents, according to DSHS. State health data shows the number of vaccine exemptions in the county have grown dramatically.
Roughly 7.5% of kindergarteners had parents or guardians who filed for an exemption for at least one vaccine in 2013. Ten years later, that number rose to more than 17.5% — one of the highest in all of Texas, according to state health data.
Meanwhile, in neighboring New Mexico, at least nine cases have been confirmed in Lea County, which borders Texas, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health told ABC News on Friday.
Similarly to the local outbreaks, all of the nationally confirmed cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans. Just one infected patient can spread measles up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC.
Health officials have been urging anyone who isn’t vaccinated to receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) shot.
The CDC currently recommends people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective.
