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Source: http://www.livingstondaily.com/usatoday/article/1882909?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Frontpage|p
Flu attacking elderly at historically high rates
3:50 PM, Feb. 1, 2013
USA Today
by Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
Though the flu is beginning to wane nationally, it is sickening and killing seniors at rates "higher than we've ever seen," a CDC flu expert said Friday.
Last week, the number of people older than 65 who died from a laboratory-confirmed case of influenza was 116 per 100,000. "We've kept rates since 2005 and we have never seen a rate this high," said Michael Jhung, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The highest we've ever seen in was 90 per 100,000."
He expects those numbers to go higher still. Hospitalization - and, in some cases, death - follows several weeks after a person first gets sick...
Flu attacking elderly at historically high rates
3:50 PM, Feb. 1, 2013
USA Today
by Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
Though the flu is beginning to wane nationally, it is sickening and killing seniors at rates "higher than we've ever seen," a CDC flu expert said Friday.
Last week, the number of people older than 65 who died from a laboratory-confirmed case of influenza was 116 per 100,000. "We've kept rates since 2005 and we have never seen a rate this high," said Michael Jhung, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The highest we've ever seen in was 90 per 100,000."
He expects those numbers to go higher still. Hospitalization - and, in some cases, death - follows several weeks after a person first gets sick...