FluView Summary ending on November 27, 2021

FluView a weekly influenza surveillance report prepared by the Influenza Division

Note: CDC is tracking the COVID-19 pandemic in a weekly publication called COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review.

2019-2020 Influenza Season Week 33, ending August 15, 2020

All data are preliminary and may change as more reports are received.

A description of the CDC influenza surveillance system, including methodology and detailed descriptions of each data component is available on the surveillance methods page.

Additional information on the current and previous influenza seasons for each surveillance component are available on FluView Interactive.

Key Updates for Week 47, ending November 27, 2021

Seasonal influenza activity in the United States remains low, but in recent weeks, the number of influenza virus detections reported by clinical and public health laboratories has increased, and the percent of outpatient visits for respiratory illness has trended upward.

Viruses

Severe Disease

All data are preliminary and may change as more reports are received.

A description of the CDC influenza surveillance system, including methodology and detailed descriptions of each data component is available on the surveillance methods page.

Additional information on the current and previous influenza seasons for each surveillance component are available on FluView Interactive.

Key Points

  • Influenza activity remains low nationally, but is slowly increasing.
  • The number of influenza viruses detected by clinical and public health labs has increased in recent weeks. The majority of viruses detected are A(H3N2). Just over 80% have occurred among children and young adults aged 5-24 years.
  • The percentage of outpatient visits due to respiratory illness has trended upwards in recent weeks but remains below baseline.
  • An annual flu vaccine is the best way to protect against flu and its potentially serious complications. CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older get a flu vaccine.
  • As of Nov. 19, 2021, 166.9M doses of flu vaccine have been distributed in the U.S.
  • Flu vaccines are available at many different locations, including pharmacies and health departments. Visit www.vaccines.gov to find a flu vaccine near you.
  • There are also flu antiviral drugs that can be used to treat flu illness.

U.S. Virologic Surveillance

Overall, influenza activity is still low; however, an increasing number of influenza positive tests have been reported by clinical and public health laboratories during recent weeks. The majority are influenza A(H3N2). Influenza A(H3N2) viruses have been reported by public health laboratories in all 10 HHS regions this season. So far during the 2021-22 season, 1,034 (81.2%) of the 1,274 A(H3N2) viruses with known patient age were reported among children and young adults aged 5-24 years. For regional and state level data about circulating influenza viruses, please visit FluView Interactive.

Clinical Laboratories

The results of tests performed by clinical laboratories nationwide are summarized below. Data from clinical laboratories (the percentage of specimens tested that are positive for influenza) are used to monitor whether influenza activity is increasing or decreasing.

 

results of tests from Clinical Laboratories
Week 47 Data Cumulative since
October 3, 2021
(Week 40)
No. of specimens tested 43,267 392,541
No. of positive specimens (%) 632 (1.5%) 2,023 (0.5%)
Positive specimens by type
Influenza A 608 (96.2%) 1,766 (87.3%)
Influenza B 24 (3.8%) 257 (12.7%)

INFLUENZA Virus Isolated
View Chart Data | View Full Screen

Public Health Laboratories

The results of tests performed by public health laboratories nationwide are summarized below.  Data from public health laboratories are used to monitor the proportion of circulating viruses that belong to each influenza subtype/lineage.

results of tests from Public Health Laboratories
Week 47 Data Cumulative since
October 3, 2021
(Week 40)
No. of specimens tested 14,399 165,808
No. of positive specimens 332 1,573
Positive specimens by type/subtype    
         Influenza A 330 (99.4%) 1,519 (96.6%)
            (H1N1)pdm09 1 (0.4%) 4 (0.3%)
             H3N2 248 (99.6%) 1,294 (99.6%)
             H3N2v 0 1 (0.1%)
             Subtyping not performed 81 220
        Influenza B 2 (0.6%) 54 (3.4%)
            Yamagata lineage 1 (50%) 5 (16.1%)
            Victoria lineage 1 (50%) 26 (83.9%)
            Lineage not performed 0 23

 

INFLUENZA Virus Isolated
View Chart Data | View Full Screen

Additional virologic surveillance information for current and past seasons:
Surveillance Methods | FluView Interactive: National, Regional, and State Data or Age Data

Influenza Virus Characterization

CDC performs genetic and antigenic characterization of U.S. viruses submitted from state and local health laboratories using Right Size Roadmap submission guidance. These data are used to compare how similar the currently circulating influenza viruses are to the reference viruses representing viruses contained in the current influenza vaccines and to monitor evolutionary changes that continually occur in influenza viruses circulating in humans. CDC also tests susceptibility of influenza viruses to antiviral medications including the neuraminidase inhibitors (oseltamivir, zanamivir, and peramivir) and the PA endonuclease inhibitor baloxavir.

Virus characterization data will be updated later this season when a sufficient number of specimens have been tested.

Outpatient Respiratory Illness Surveillance

The U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) monitors outpatient visits for influenza-like illness [ILI (fever plus cough or sore throat)], not laboratory-confirmed influenza, and will therefore capture respiratory illness visits due to infection with any pathogen that can present with similar symptoms such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, health care-seeking behaviors have changed, and people may be accessing the health care system in alternative settings not captured as a part of ILINet or at a different point in their illness than they might have before the pandemic. Therefore, it is important to evaluate syndromic surveillance data, including that from ILINet, in the context of other sources of surveillance data to obtain a complete and accurate picture of influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and other respiratory virus activity. CDC is tracking the COVID-19 pandemic in a weekly publication called COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review. Information about other respiratory virus activity can be found on CDC’s National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) website.

Outpatient Respiratory Illness Visits

Nationwide during week 47, 2.4% of patient visits reported through ILINet were due to respiratory illness that included fever plus a cough or sore throat, also referred to as ILI. This percentage is below the national baseline of 2.5%. Regions 3 and 7 are above their region-specific baselines; all other regions are below their baselines. Multiple respiratory viruses are co-circulating, and the relative contribution of influenza virus infection to ILI can vary by location.

national levels of ILI and ARI

* Effective October 3, 2021 (week 40), the ILI definition (fever plus cough or sore throat) no longer includes “without a known cause other than influenza.”

View Chart Data (current season only) | View Full Screen

Outpatient Respiratory Illness Visits by Age Group

More than 70% of ILINet participants provide both the number of patient visits for respiratory illness and the total number of patient visits for the week broken out by age group. Data from this subset of providers are used to calculate the percentages of patient visits for respiratory illness by age group.

The percentage of visits for respiratory illness reported in ILINet are trending upward for four age groups (0–4 years, 5–24 years, 25-49 years and 50–64 years) and remains stable for those 65+ years.

national levels of ILI and ARI by age group

* Effective October 3, 2021 (week 40), the ILI definition (fever plus cough or sore throat) no longer includes “without a known cause other than influenza.”

View Chart Data | View Full Screen

Outpatient Respiratory Illness Activity Map

Data collected in ILINet are used to produce a measure of ILI activity* by state/jurisdiction and Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA).

ILI Activity by State/Jurisdiction and Core Based Statistical Area
Activity Level Number of Jurisdictions Number of CBSAs
Week 47

(Week ending
Nov. 27, 2021)

Week 46

(Week ending 
Nov. 20, 2021)

Week 47

(Week ending
Nov. 27, 2021)

Week 46

(Week ending
Nov. 20, 2021)

Very High 0 0 0 2
High 1 3 18 20
Moderate 2 3 42 42
Low 23 10 141 112
Minimal 28 39 437 479
Insufficient Data 1 0 291 274

 

*Data collected in ILINet may disproportionally represent certain populations within a jurisdiction or CBSA, and therefore, may not accurately depict the full picture of influenza activity for the entire jurisdiction or CBSA. Differences in the data presented here by CDC and independently by some health departments likely represent differing levels of data completeness with data presented by the health department likely being the more complete.


Additional information about medically attended visits for ILI for current and past seasons:
Surveillance Methods | FluView Interactive: National, Regional, and State Data or ILI Activity Map

Long-term Care Facility (LTCF) Surveillance

LTCFs (e.g., nursing homes/skilled nursing, long-term care for the developmentally disabled, and assisted living facilities) from all 50 states and U.S. territories report data on influenza infections among residents through the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Long-term Care Facility Component. During week 47, 30 (0.2%) of 14,001 reporting LTCFs reported at least one influenza positive test among their residents.

national levels of ltcf influenza
View Chart Dataexcel icon | View Full Screen

Additional information about long-term care facility surveillance:
Surveillance Methods | Additional Dataexternal icon

Hospitalization Surveillance

FluSurv-NET

The Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurv-NET) conducts population-based surveillance for laboratory-confirmed influenza-related hospitalizations in select counties in 14 states and represents approximately 9% of the U.S. population. FluSurv-NET estimated hospitalization rates will be updated weekly starting later this season.


Additional FluSurv-NET hospitalization surveillance information for current and past seasons and additional age groups:
Surveillance Methods | FluView Interactive

HHS-Protect Hospitalization Surveillance

Hospitals report to HHS-Protect the number of patients admitted with laboratory-confirmed influenza. During week 47, 495 patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza were admitted to the hospital.

national levels of influenza hospitalizations
View Chart Dataexcel icon | View Full Screen

Additional HHS Protect hospitalization surveillance information:
Surveillance MethodsAdditional Dataexternal icon

Mortality Surveillance

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Mortality Surveillance

Based on NCHS mortality surveillance data available on December 2, 2021, 15.5% of the deaths that occurred during the week ending November 27, 2021 (week 47), were due to pneumonia, influenza, and/or COVID-19 (PIC). This percentage is above the epidemic threshold of 6.4% for this week. Among the 2,505 PIC deaths reported for this week, 1,826 had COVID-19 listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate, and four listed influenza, indicating that current PIC mortality is due primarily to COVID-19 and not influenza. The data presented are preliminary and may change as more data are received and processed.

INFLUENZA Virus Isolated
View Chart Dataexcel icon | View Full Screen

Additional pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 mortality surveillance information for current and past seasons:
Surveillance Methods | FluView Interactive

Influenza-Associated Pediatric Mortality

No influenza-associated pediatric deaths occurring during the 2021-2022 season have been reported to CDC.

Click on image to launch interactive tool
 View Full Screen 

Additional pediatric mortality surveillance information for current and past seasons:
Surveillance Methods | FluView Interactive

Additional National and International Influenza Surveillance Information

FluView Interactive: FluView includes enhanced web-based interactive applications that can provide dynamic visuals of the influenza data collected and analyzed by CDC. These FluView Interactive applications allow people to create customized, visual interpretations of influenza data, as well as make comparisons across flu seasons, regions, age groups and a variety of other demographics.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: Monthly surveillance data on the prevalence of health-related workplace absenteeism among full-time workers in the United States are available from NIOSH.

U.S. State and local influenza surveillance: Select a jurisdiction below to access the latest local influenza information.

World Health Organization:
Additional influenza surveillance information from participating WHO member nations is available through
FluNetexternal icon and the Global Epidemiology Reports.external icon

WHO Collaborating Centers for Influenza:
Australiaexternal icon, Chinaexternal icon, Japanexternal icon, the United Kingdomexternal icon, and the United States (CDC in Atlanta, Georgia)

Europe:
The most up-to-date influenza information from Europe is available from WHO/Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Controlexternal icon.

Public Health Agency of Canada:
The most up-to-date influenza information from Canada is available in Canada’s weekly FluWatch reportexternal icon.

Public Health England:
The most up-to-date influenza information from the United Kingdom is available from Public Health Englandexternal icon.

Any links provided to non-Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization web pages found at these links.

A description of the CDC influenza surveillance system, including methodology and detailed descriptions of each data component is available on the surveillance methods page.