Last Year’s Flu Season; Not Good

Last Year’s Flu Season; Not Good

The Centers for Disease Control this week released some sobering statistics about last year’s flu season, but the numbers may not account for the people who got sick in Illinois.

The CDC said 80,000 people in the U.S. died from the flu last year. Almost a million more got sick.

But Illinois’ flu toll is just a fraction of that, but we don’t know the total number. The Illinois Department of Public Health’s Melaney Arnold said that’s because the state doesn’t track adult deaths.

“Similar to the CDC, pediatric deaths and ICU related admissions are what is tracked,” Arnold said. “Last year, we did unfortunately see nine pediatric flu deaths in Illinois. And about 2,300 people became sick and were admitted to the ICU for flu-related illnesses.”

Usually the flu killed between 12,000 and about 50,000 people each year.

Both the CDC and Illinois Department of Public Health say the best way to make sure you don’t get sick or don’t get seriously sick, is to get a flu shot.