U.S. flu cases increasing, including massive flu outbreak at the University of Michigan

CDC to probe massive flu outbreak at the University of Michigan Most of the flu cases have occurred in unvaccinated individuals. Nicoletta Lanese livescience.com

A sudden surge of influenza cases on the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus has drawn the attention of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has now deployed a team of experts to investigate the outbreak.

The campus's first flu case was flagged on Oct. 6, and, since then, the University Health Service (UHS) has diagnosed 528 additional people with influenza, according to The University Record, the university's news service. During the week of Nov. 1, 27.2% of the flu tests given came back positive, with a total of 198 new flu cases identified on the campus. And the week of Nov. 8, the test positivity rate shot up to 37%, when 313 additional people were diagnosed with flu. 

Local health officials worked with the School of Public Health and Michigan Medicine researchers to identify the strain of flu behind the outbreak, concluding it was a subtype of influenza A virus called H3N2. Some 77.1% of the campus cases occurred in individuals who had not received this year's flu vaccine.  ...

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