How nice that the mildest flu season in years occurred in a year when there was a flu vaccine shortage.  Could there be a connection?  - SM

“Flu Season Mildest in Years”

Charleston Gazette (www.wvgazette.com) (02/28/01) P. P2D;

Borenstein, Seth

According to Keiji Fukuda, chief of influenza epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2000-2001 flu season has turned out to be one of the lightest in recent memory for contagion, death, and other effects on health.  An epidemiologist at the Influenza Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, W. Paul Glezen, notes that what kept this year mild was a combination of the strains of flu that hit the United States and the sporadic way they spread across the country.  Last year, a flu strain called H3N2 was particularly virulent because it was able to evolve very fast, making it harder for people to develop immunity.  This year, according to experts, there were two flu strains, type B and H1N1, both of which are relatively milder and slow to evolve.  Moreover, says Glezen, this year’s flu has jumped around erratically instead of spreading across the map like a normal epidemic. According to Fukuda, the B strain that is now affecting people appears to be evolving into something new, while the stronger H3N2 could be back next year after a year’s break.  Fukuda said that doctors have decided to factor those two flu strains into next year’s flu vaccine.