As flu season gets underway, global health experts are increasingly worried about a new strain of the virus that popped up in June \u2014 four months after the makeup of this year\u2019s flu shots had been decided. <\/p>\n
The new strain, a version of H3N2, is causing outbreaks in Canada and the U.K., where health officials are warning about the early wave<\/a> that\u2019s sending people to the hospital. <\/p>\n \u201cSince it emerged, it\u2019s rapidly spreading and predominating in some countries so far in the Northern Hemisphere,\u201d Dr. Wenqing Zhang, head of the World Health Organization\u2019s Global Respiratory Threats Unit, said Wednesday during a media briefing. <\/p>\n The version of H3N2 that\u2019s circulated worldwide this year \u201cacquired 7 new mutations over the summer,\u201d Antonia Ho, a consultant in infectious diseases at Scotland\u2019s University of Glasgow, said in a media statement. That \u201cmeans the virus is quite different to the H3N2 strain included in this year\u2019s vaccine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The U.K. is heading \u201cinto what looks set to be a cruel winter, with flu cases being triple what they were this time last year,\u201d the head of the U.K.\u2019s National Health Service, James Mackey, said last week.<\/a> <\/p>\n It\u2019s picking up in Canada, too, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan. H3N2 is generally thought to cause more illness and be worse for older adults than other strains. Japan is also experiencing an unusually early and harsh flu season that\u2019s \u201cunprecedented,\u201d Rasmussen said. <\/p>\n Japanese news outlet Nippon TV<\/a> reported that as of Nov. 4, flu cases in Tokyo had surged to nearly six times the level seen at this time last year, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. More than 2,300 day cares and schools<\/a> in the country were at least partially closed because of the outbreak, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not good signs,\u201d Rasmussen said. <\/p>\n Is this flu strain already in the U.S.?<\/strong><\/p>\n H3N2 is an A strain of influenza. While there are plenty of anecdotal reports of people testing positive for flu A across the country, the insights stop there. <\/p>\n The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn\u2019t provided a detailed, national report on flu activity<\/a> since Sept. 26 because of the government shutdown.<\/p>\n Even if it reopens in the coming days, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said that the \u201chollowing out\u201d of the CDC in the form of massive layoffs could further delay flu data collection and analysis. <\/strong>Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would cut up to 10,000 full-time jobs in the public health sector<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to be dependent on state laboratories and academic laboratories for these investigations and report them out,\u201d Schaffner said. \u201cThe information will not be as comprehensive, centralized and as quickly analyzed and communicated from the CDC as we have had in previous years.\u201d<\/p>\n Will this year\u2019s flu shot be helpful?<\/strong><\/p>\n Global health officials and drugmakers select which viral strain to include in fall flu vaccines for the Northern Hemisphere each year in February, based on which types are circulating in the Southern Hemisphere. This year\u2019s flu shots protect against three strains of influenza, including two types of influenza A and one type of influenza B<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n The annual flu shot doesn\u2019t prevent people from getting infected with the flu. It\u2019s mainly used to lessen the severity of the illness. Last year, the vaccine was up to 55% effective<\/a> in keeping adults with the flu out of the hospital. <\/p>\n