(NBC/WAVY) – As the nation prepares for the upcoming flu season, new data provides a tragic reminder of how deadly the infectious disease can be.
Last year’s flu season broke records in all the worst ways, killing more Americans than doctors have seen in more than 40 years.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control finds 80,000 people died from flu complications in 2018, and 900,000 were hospitalized.
VDH Report on 2017-18 Flu Season
The Virginia Department of Health’s report for the 2017-18 flu season largely matched the results on the national scale. Virginia also reported more deaths than in recent years. There were six influenza-associated pediatric deaths in Virginia which is the “highest mortality burden since VDH began collecting data,” the report states.
These statistics are frustrating the nation’s Surgeon General.
“I’m tired of hearing people say ‘Well I didn’t get sick and I didn’t get the flu shot,’ or ‘I don’t like it, it makes my arm hurt,'” Dr. Jerome Adams said Thursday during a press event designed to encourage people to get vaccinated, to protect not only themselves, but also those around them.
“Those 80,000 people who died last year from the flu? Guess what? They got the flu from someone,” Adams pointed out.
Doctors admit the flu vaccine is not perfect, but they say even if you do get sick the shot can help prevent the complications that end up killing people.
Last year 180 children died.
“The overwhelming majority of those children are not vaccinated. And their deaths are largely preventable,” said Dr. Allison Bartlett of the University of Chicago Medicine.
As many as 168 million flu vaccine doses will be available this year, the CDC said.
The CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone six months and older but says only 46.8 percent of the public got one last year.
Click here to see which vaccine option is best for you and to find out what is new this flu season.
