Flu season has become so intense that the number of people seeking care at doctors' offices and emergency rooms has surged to levels not reported since the peak of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, federal officials said. Flu continued to get worse as 10 more children died in the week ending Feb. 2, bringing the total number of child deaths this season to at least 63. Pandemics occur when there is a new strain of virus to which people have no previous exposure. That's not the case here, because the seasonal strains that are circulating this year are not new. But the predominant one, H3N2, is a particularly nasty strain that is associated with more complications, hospitalizations and deaths, especially among children, those older than 65, and in people with certain chronic conditions. |
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