Flu cases in Connecticut have increased dramatically over the last month, and health officials say the surge in illnesses is happening earlier this season.
For the week ending Nov. 29, 831 cases were reported. A month later, during the week ending Dec. 27, the state recorded 4,755 cases.
The numbers are far higher than what was reported in December of last year. During the final week of 2024, the state logged 611 flu cases.
Hospitalizations are also on the rise. Seventy-three were reported during the week that ended on Nov. 29; a month later, the state reported 432 hospitalizations.
“Looking at the trajectory of our curve for the flu right now, it’s up,” Dr. Manisha Juthani, the state’s public health commissioner. “Unfortunately, I predict it’s going to be a tough winter. I don’t know where we’ll top out.”
“It’s definitely far earlier than last year,” she said of the surge in cases. “And would I say it’s maybe a little bit earlier than a typical flu season.”
The increase is not unique to Connecticut. Several other states have seen big jumps in cases this month. New York’s health department said the week ending Dec. 20 marked the most flu cases the state had recorded in a single week since 2004: 71,000.
“What everybody’s alarmed about right now is the rapid rise,” said Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist and system director for infectious diseases at Hartford HealthCare. “The mountain was much steeper in the sense that we went from basically zero to 60 in a matter of weeks."
Why are cases and hospitalizations up?
Health officials say the rise in cases and hospitalizations is being driven by a new flu variant known as subclade K.
There are two subtypes of Type A flu, and subclade K is a mutated version of one of them, called H3N2. The H3N2 strain is harsh, especially for older adults.
“Any year where H3N2 predominates tends to be a worse year,” Juthani said.
Subclade K’s mutations aren’t enough of a change to be considered an entirely new kind of flu. But they’re different enough to evade some of the protection from this year’s vaccine, medical providers said.
“The mutations have made it more communicable. It’s basically new to our immune system, so that’s why it’s evading our immune system,” Wu said.
While the new variant appears to spread more quickly, it’s not yet known if it is more severe than others.
“It’s definitely more transmissible,” said Dr. Karl Hellstrand, chair of the emergency department at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury. “The strain is new, so people don’t really have any kind of protection from seeing it in the past.”
The symptoms of subclade K are similar to other variants, he said. They include fever, body aches, sore throat, lethargy and sometimes vomiting and abdominal pain.
Still, Juthani said, the flu vaccine is effective against hospitalization and death.
“In data that we’re seeing published around the world, the flu shot is 70% protective for hospitalization and death in adults,” she said.
What concerns do health officials have?
Health officials said they worry about increasing vaccine hesitancy and capacity at hospitals this flu season.
“My biggest concern is capacity at the hospitals,” Juthani said. “I worry about hospital capacity, [intensive care unit] capacity, and the overall strain on the health care system.
“Whenever there is less confidence in prevention efforts and less uptake of prevention efforts, health care will see the consequences down the road. That’s what I’m bracing for — what we’re going to continue to see as the weeks unfold.”
With the flu surge arriving earlier this season, physicians said they are concerned that not enough people have been vaccinated.
“It kind of snuck up on us. And there is a significant percentage of people who have not gotten vaccinated,” said Dr. Christopher Davison, chair of emergency medicine at Greenwich Hospital. “If you have not gotten vaccinated, now is the time to do that.”
“The annual, seasonal concern we deal with, almost like clockwork, is busy emergency rooms in combination with hospitals at capacity,” he added. “It’s a challenging combination, but we work through it.”
What can people do to protect themselves?
Getting a flu shot, practicing good hygiene — frequently washing hands and covering coughs and sneezes — and masking in crowded spaces can help prevent illness, health officials said.
“The influenza vaccine, it may not be perfect, but it will help you,” Wu said. “We measure vaccine effectiveness for some of these diseases by keeping people out of the hospital. So, its job is to keep people out of the hospital. Even though people may think there’s a bit of a flu mismatch with the vaccine, it’s still very important to get it.”
While this year’s vaccine isn’t a perfect match to the subclade K strain, a preliminary analysis from the U.K. found it offered at least partial protection, lowering people’s risk of hospitalization.
The CDC and major medical societies recommend a flu vaccine for almost everyone age 6 months and older. Despite recent misinformation and confusion about vaccines, the flu recommendations haven’t changed.
Flu is particularly dangerous for people 65 and older, pregnant women, young children and people of any age who have chronic health problems, including asthma, diabetes, heart disease and weak immune systems.
Health officials are urging people to stay home if sick.
“If you’re sick, don’t get other people sick,” Wu said. “When people are sick and they’re going into work or going to a party or going to school, and they’re getting other people sick, that may be fine for some of the general population. But when you spread it to somebody who may not do well — let’s say I got you sick … you gave it to somebody else, and then that person gave it to their grandmother, who passed away — people don’t see that downstream effect.”
Most people can treat the symptoms of the flu at home, but issues like breathing problems and chest pain should be evaluated by medical providers, physicians said.
“If you’re having generalized symptoms but you’re able to stay hydrated and control fever and body aches with over-the-counter medications, you can probably continue to do that in conjunction with a primary care doctor,” Hellstrand said. “But once you start having worsening of symptoms, including not being able to drink and stay hydrated, significant respiratory distress or feelings like you can’t breathe, chest pain, vomiting — those are times when you probably need to escalate care by being seen in the hospital.”
An Associated Press report is included in this story.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
