Hospitals Overflow as Flu Epidemic Spreads Unabated.
Deaths continue to rise as this year’s record season worsens. By Michelle Fay Cortez February 2, 2018, 1:21 PM EST Updated on February 2, 2018, 1:37 PM EST
The number of Americans hit by an already record-setting flu season continues to rise as hospitalization rates hit new highs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Hospitals are more crowded than in the 2014-2015 flu season, which marked the previous record when 710,000 Americans needed medical care to beat the illness, said Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s acting director. The agency also reported the deaths of an additional 16 children over the past week, bringing the total number of pediatric deaths attributed to the flu to 53 so far this season. Half of them had no additional health complications that would have placed them at elevated risk, Schuchat said.
A severe flu season is stretching hospitals thin. That is a very bad omen By HELEN BRANSWELL @HelenBranswell JANUARY 15, 2018
A tsunami of sick people has swamped hospitals in many parts of the country in recent weeks as a severe flu season has taken hold. In Rhode Island, hospitals diverted ambulances for a period because they were overcome with patients. In San Diego, a hospital erected a tent outside its emergency room to manage an influx of people with flu symptoms.
Wait times at scores of hospitals have gotten longer.
But if something as foreseeable as a flu season — albeit one that is pretty severe — is stretching health care to its limits, what does that tell us about the ability of hospitals to handle the next flu pandemic?
What is with this notion that ancient people have to be kept alive at extreme expense to everyone else? The easiest way to cut down the country's runaway medical spending and preserve social security funding at the same time is to have an age or fitness cutoff where people are allowed to die peacefully and with dignity. And that goes double for RBG!
Deaths continue to rise as this year’s record season worsens.
By Michelle Fay Cortez
February 2, 2018, 1:21 PM EST Updated on February 2, 2018, 1:37 PM EST
The number of Americans hit by an already record-setting flu season continues to rise as hospitalization rates hit new highs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Hospitals are more crowded than in the 2014-2015 flu season, which marked the previous record when 710,000 Americans needed medical care to beat the illness, said Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s acting director. The agency also reported the deaths of an additional 16 children over the past week, bringing the total number of pediatric deaths attributed to the flu to 53 so far this season. Half of them had no additional health complications that would have placed them at elevated risk, Schuchat said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/hospitals-overflow-as-flu-epidemic-spreads-unabated
A severe flu season is stretching hospitals thin. That is a very bad omen
By HELEN BRANSWELL @HelenBranswell JANUARY 15, 2018
A tsunami of sick people has swamped hospitals in many parts of the country in recent weeks as a severe flu season has taken hold. In Rhode Island, hospitals diverted ambulances for a period because they were overcome with patients. In San Diego, a hospital erected a tent outside its emergency room to manage an influx of people with flu symptoms.
Wait times at scores of hospitals have gotten longer.
But if something as foreseeable as a flu season — albeit one that is pretty severe — is stretching health care to its limits, what does that tell us about the ability of hospitals to handle the next flu pandemic?
https://www.statnews.com/2018/01/15/flu-hospital-pandemics/