NEW YORK (AP) - Some new evidence this is a particularly bad flu season: Flu-related hospitalizations of the elderly are the highest since the government started tracking that statistic nine years ago.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that about 198 out of every 100,000 people 65 and older have been hospitalized with flu-related illness this flu season.
It's the highest level seen since the government started tracking the statistic in the 2005-2006 flu season. The previous record was 183 per 100,000, during the flu season two years ago.
That flu season and this one were dominated by a virus known as H3N2. This year, the flu vaccine is not built for the H3N2 strain, that's spreading most widely.
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Online:
CDC flu update: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/
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