Flu Rates and Severity Still High Making Vaccination Beneficial

Although the peak influenza activity generally begins to decline in March, viral activity is continuing at an elevated rate according to CDC, with half of the US states continuing to report high or very high case rates, and 71 children dying from the flu thus far.

While the 2025-26 seasonal totals are not yet calculated, as the season generally runs through April or May, the trends set from past seasons don’t bode well:

• Since 2020, the number of distributed doses of flu vaccine have continually declined, with 2024-25 seeing the lowest rate of vaccination in the last decade, with the 2025-26 season thus far continuing the trend. 
• However, the 2024-25 saw 289 child deaths—the most reported in a non-pandemic flu season since the CDC began tracking pediatric flu deaths in 2004.
• This is particularly notable, as an approximately 90% of the reported pediatric deaths occurred in children who were eligible for vaccination but were not fully vaccinated against influenza. 
• Additionally, the number of emergency room visits were fairly consistently higher than in past years, with hospital admissions continuing the high trend of the previous season.

With that data showing that illnesses, hospitalizations, and/or deaths from the flu increase as the vaccination rate increases, TAG advises that businesses encourage employees, and their families, be vaccinated. Even with the peak season declining, the continuation of flu season into May makes both children and adults susceptible to infection, and potential serious repercussions. The vaccine is generally effective in about two weeks from uptake, so getting the shot now will still be beneficial.

Respiratory illnesses can have significant risk for individuals and businesses, particularly if one should spread through your workers. If you have questions or would like assistance in determining your best defense against infectious disease, give TAG a call. We have public health experts who can assist you.

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Public Health News:

• Monitoring of retail milk samples from Spring 2024 through January 2025 revealed decreases in detected H5N1 viral RNA from about 36% to 7%, likely due to improved surveillance of the milk supply and disease controls in cattle. 
• Phase one trials have been completed at Harvard on an influenza nasal spray with monoclonal antibodies, demonstrating its safety.  But its half life was only about 3 hours, indicating that it would provide only short-term protection. Still, this could be beneficial for temporary protection for high-risk populations such as healthcare workers. 
• Flu vaccine doses distributed in 2024-25 season were lowest in 12 years. The 2025-2026 season is currently being reported as lower. 
• The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a report of their recent antimicrobial resistance monitoring in Salmonella spp., Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli from humans, food-producing animals (broilers, laying hens, fattening turkeys, fattening pigs and bovines under 1 year of age), and derived meat. A high proportion of the isolates were resistant to commonly used antibiotics, including ampicillin, tetracycline, and sulfonamides, but some decreased resistance was seen to ampicillin, tetracyclines, and erythromycin. These results are concerning since some of these drugs are important for treating human cases of illnesses attributed to these bacteria. 
• A second report from EFSA summarized data collected on the presence of authorized and banned pharmacologically active substances and their residues in food derived from animals, including meat (farmed and game), dairy products, eggs, or honey. The types of substances covered are hormones (including steroids), beta-agonists (muscle-soothers), antibacterials, anti-parasitic drugs, and insect repellents, among others. Overall, the percentage of non-compliant samples was 0.13% (629 of 493,664 samples) which is comparable to the previous year when non-compliance was 0.11%. This interactive dashboard allows users to review the results by substance type and animal species.