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A28    SCIENCE
                 Friday 28 September 2018
            APNewsBreak: 80,000 people died of flu last winter in U.S.




            By MIKE STOBBE                                                                                                      ans estimate.
            NEW YORK (AP) — An esti-                                                                                            It's  not  easy  to  compare
            mated  80,000  Americans                                                                                            flu seasons through history,
            died  of  flu  and  its  compli-                                                                                    partly  because  the  na-
            cations  last  winter  —  the                                                                                       tion's  population  is  chang-
            disease's highest death toll                                                                                        ing. There are more Ameri-
            in at least four decades.                                                                                           cans  —  and  more  elderly
            The director of the Centers                                                                                         Americans  —  today  than
            for  Disease  Control  and                                                                                          in decades past, noted Dr.
            Prevention, Dr. Robert Red-                                                                                         Daniel Jernigan, a CDC flu
            field,  revealed  the  total  in                                                                                    expert.  U.S.  health  officials
            an interview Tuesday night                                                                                          on Thursday are scheduled
            with The Associated Press.                                                                                          to  hold  a  media  event  in
            Flu  experts  knew  it  was  a                                                                                      Washington,  D.C.,  to  stress
            very  bad  season,  but  at                                                                                         the  importance  of  vacci-
            least one found the size of                                                                                         nations  to  protect  against
            the estimate surprising.                                                                                            whatever flu circulates this
            "That's  huge,"  said  Dr.  Wil-                                                                                    coming winter.
            liam  Schaffner,  a  Vander-                                                                                        And  how  bad  is  it  going
            bilt  University  vaccine  ex-                                                                                      to be? So far, the flu that's
            pert.  The  tally  was  nearly                                                                                      been  detected  is  a  milder
            twice  as  much  as  what                                                                                           strain,  and  early  signs  are
            health  officials  previously                                                                                       that the vaccine is shaping
            considered a bad year, he                                                                                           up  to  be  a  good  match,
            said.                                                                                                               Jernigan said.
            In  recent  years,  flu-related                                                                                     The makeup of the vaccine
            deaths  have  ranged  from                                                                                          has  been  changed  this
            about 12,000 to 56,000, ac-                                                                                         year to try to better protect
            cording to the CDC.                                                                                                 against expected strains.
            Last  fall  and  winter,  the                                                                                       "We don't know what's go-
            U.S.  went  through  one  of   In this Feb. 26, 2015 photo taken through the eyepiece of a microscope, human cells infected   ing  to  happen,  but  we're
            the most severe flu seasons   with the flu virus glow green under light from a fluorescence microscope at a laboratory in Seattle.  seeing  more  encouraging
            in  recent  memory.  It  was                                                                       Associated Press  signs  than  we  were  early
            driven by a kind of flu that                                                                                        last year," Jernigan said.q
            tends  to  put  more  people  listed on death certificates.
            in  the  hospital  and  cause  So the CDC uses statistical
            more  deaths,  particularly  models, which are periodi-   Space station receives special
            among young children and  cally revised, to make esti-
            the elderly.                 mates.
            February and it was mostly  the  flu  can  include  pneu- delivery from White Stork
            The season peaked in early  Fatal  complications  from

            over by the end of March.    monia, stroke and heart at-
            Making a bad year worse,  tack.                                                                                     The  cargo  ship  known  as
            the flu vaccine didn't work  CDC  officials  called  the                                                            Kounotori  in  Japanese  ar-
            very well. Experts neverthe-  80,000  figure  preliminary,                                                          rived  at  the  International
            less  say  vaccination  is  still  and  it  may  be  slightly  re-                                                  Space Station on Thursday,
            worth  it  because  it  makes  vised. But they said it is not                                                       five days after liftoff.  It's the
            illnesses  less  severe  and  expected to go down.                                                                  seventh  Japanese  ship-
            save lives.                  It  eclipses  the  estimates                                                           ment  and  the  first  in  two
            "I'd like to see more people  for  every  flu  season  going                                                        years.
            get  vaccinated,"  Redfield  back to the winter of 1976-                                                            Commander Andrew Feus-
            told the AP at an event in  1977.  Estimates  for  many                                                             tel (FOY-stull) used a robot
            New  York.  "We  lost  80,000  earlier  seasons  were  not                                                          arm  to  capture  the  White
            people last year to the flu."  readily available.                                                                   Stork.
            CDC  officials  do  not  have  Last  winter  was  not  the                                                          It holds more than 5 tons of
            exact counts of how many  worst flu season on record,                                                               supplies, including new bat-
            people  die  from  flu  each  however. The 1918 flu pan-                                                            teries  for  the  station's  solar
            year. Flu is so common that  demic, which lasted nearly                                                             power  grid.  Spacewalking
            not all flu cases are report-  two years, killed more than                                                          astronauts  will  help  install
            ed,  and  flu  is  not  always  500,000  Americans,  histori-                                                       the  batteries  in  October,
                                                                                                                                later  than  planned  due  to
                                                                                                                                launch  delays  caused  by
                                                                      In this image from video made available by NASA, the Japan   bad weather and rocket is-
                                                                      Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle   sues.
                                                                      approaches the International Space Station on Thursday, Sept.   Feustel  and  fellow  NASA
                                                                      27, 2018. It’s the seventh Japanese shipment to the station and
                                                                      the first in two years.                                   astronaut  Ricky  Arnold  re-
                                                                                                               Associated Press  turn  to  Earth  next  week,
                                                                                                                                along  with  Russian  Oleg
                                                                      By MARCIA DUNN               nauts have received a spe-   Artemyev.  That  will  leave
                                                                       AP Aerospace Writer         cial  delivery  from  a  Japa-  an  American,  Russian  and
                                                                      CAPE    CANAVERAL,     Fla.  nese capsule named White  German on board until an-
                                                                      (AP) — Space station astro-  Stork.                       other crew launches.q
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