Study Increases Estimate of Flu Hospitalizations in the United States

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2004-9-21

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.

Influenza can be life-threatening, especially for the very old or
the very young. In the United States, a new study raises the
estimate of how many people require hospital care related to the
flu. Most cases of influenza in the United States usually happen
from November until about April, during the colder months.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
did they study. They looked at hospital records from the flu seasons
between nineteen seventy-nine and two thousand-one. They counted
flu-related hospitalizations. Doctor William Thompson led the
research.

They found that more than two hundred thousand people are
hospitalized each year because of the flu. That is almost two times
as many as earlier estimates by the C.D.C.

The researchers say one major reason for the increase is the
aging of the population. The number of Americans age eighty-five and
older more than doubled in the last thirty years.

Also, the study included the years in the late nineteen nineties
when there were more cases of severe forms of the flu. And the
researchers noted a third reason for the higher number of
hospitalizations they found. They considered a greater number of
flu-related sicknesses to reach the new estimate. The report
appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The highest rates of influenza-related hospitalizations were
among people eighty-five and older. The study found that the risk of
hospitalizations increased with age starting at fifty. Those least
affected were between five and forty-nine years old. Children
younger than five had rates similar to those among people fifty to
sixty-four.

Influenza is a respiratory illness. It attacks the nose, throat
and lungs. It causes a high body temperature and muscle aches and
makes people feel very tired. It also causes a dry cough and sore
throat. The virus spreads through the air when infected people cough
or sneeze.

The C.D.C. says most people who get the flu will recover in a
week or two. But some people develop life-threatening conditions
like pneumonia.

In the United States, health officials say an average of about
thirty-six thousand people each year die from influenza. They say
the best way to prevent the flu is to get vaccinated each fall
before flu season begins.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia
Kirk. This is Gwen Outen.


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