Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

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