AUGUSTA, Maine — In its weekly influenza surveillance report, the Maine Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says the flu in Maine has a regional spread and reports 15 positive cases of the flu in Maine for the week ending on April 4.
In total this flu season, there have been 10,171 positive cases of the flu across Maine, compared to 9,122 at this time last year.
For the week ending on April 6, 2019, the flu was considered widespread in Maine, and there had been a total of 935 hospitalizations.
The Maine CDC report says one person died this week from the flu, and a total of 38 people have died from the flue this season in Maine. A total of 513 people have been hospitalized this season; two of those were reported in this week’s report.
This flu season, there has been one pediatric flu-related death reported in an unvaccinated child in Maine.
April 4, 2020 weekly report:
April 6, 2019 weekly report:
According to the Maine CDC data, 82.6% of influenza A/H1N1 samples match the vaccine strain; 46.5% of A/H3N2 samples match the vaccine strain; 62.2% of B/Victoria samples match the vaccine strain; and 100% of B/Yamagata samples match the vaccine strain.
The U.S. CDC said confirmed flu-associated hospitalization rates for the U.S. population are overall higher than most recent seasons. The percent of deaths associated with pneumonia and influenza is above the epidemic threshold.
"The increase is due to an increase in pneumonia deaths rather than influenza deaths and may be associated with COVID-19," the U.S. CDC says.
The U.S. CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 39 million flu illnesses, 400,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths from flu.
"Almost all (>99%) of the influenza viruses tested this season are susceptible to the four FDA-approved influenza antiviral medications recommended for use in the U.S. this season."
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