Monday, February 23, 2009

Influenza season is in full force

As you can see from the graphs, influenza has hit Southern California. We are still at high, endemic levels of RSV (well over 10%), however the numbers look like they are leveling off or even declining. For influenza we are seeing primarily influenza A but we have reports of influenza B from all reporting sites. Remember that the CDC is reporting >98% resistance to Oseltamivir for H1N1 influenza A isolates, so recommends either Zanamivir or combination Oseltamivir + Rimantidine for empiric treatment of influenza A. For now, it looks as though the vaccine is a good match for both H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A isolates (H3N2 retaining susceptibility to Oseltamivir) and that the influenza B isolates seems to be different from the vaccine strains, and so will be changed for next year's vaccine. The complete information can be accessed at the CDC influenza site: www.cdc.gov/flu

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