Flu Season Severity and Vaccine Effectiveness: Key Insights from Health Experts
As the flu season progresses, experts are evaluating its impact compared to previous years. According to Tessmer, this season has been serious yet less severe than the notorious 2024-2025 flu season.
“If you’re comparing this current season’s flu season compared to last year, which would be the 2024-25 season, it’s been less severe overall,” Tessmer stated. “Now, that’s not to say that it’s been pretty light because it has been on par with prior seasons. But the 2024-2025 influenza season was particularly bad.”
Vaccine Mismatch and Its Implications
One of the challenges this season has been a mismatch between the circulating flu strain and the vaccine, reducing the vaccine’s effectiveness, as highlighted by Rupp.
“This resulted in some degree of a mismatch between the strains that were in the vaccine versus what we saw circulating in the community,” Rupp noted. “The estimates for the vaccine effectiveness in preventing confirmed cases of flu is probably in the range of about 30% to 40%.”
Despite this reduced effectiveness, Rupp emphasizes the importance of vaccination.
“The truth of the matter is that 30% or 40% is better than 0%, and the vaccine is safe,” Rupp explained. “The degree of side effects and toxicity from the vaccine are so minimal for almost everybody that it really does pay off to get the vaccine.”
Impact on Nebraska and National Flu Statistics
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services reported nearly 14,000 positive flu cases this season, with an overall positivity rate of 15%. The state has seen nearly 60 flu-associated deaths, including fewer than six pediatric deaths. Due to privacy concerns, further details on pediatric deaths were not disclosed.
On a national scale, the CDC’s FluView report for the week ending March 14 recorded 115 pediatric deaths from flu-associated illness, with about 85% of those children not fully vaccinated against influenza.
Understanding Flu Complications
Rupp explained that severe flu cases often follow one of two paths: influenza pneumonia or secondary bacterial infections.
“The primary system that is infected with influenza virus is the respiratory tract,” Rupp said. “People who really get into trouble develop influenza pneumonia — infection of the lung — and that can result in very severe illness and death.”
He further elaborated on the risk of secondary bacterial infections.
“The influenza virus causes aberrations in the epithelial cells — that’s the lining of your lungs and your respiratory tract — and it makes those cells and those organ systems much more susceptible to bacterial invasion and infection,” Rupp explained. “One of the places we frequently see people getting into trouble is they have a respiratory virus and then they get a secondary bacterial infection that results in pneumonia or invasion into the bloodstream. And that’s where people can get very severely ill fairly quickly.”
Importance of Timely Diagnosis and Treatment
Rupp stressed the necessity of early diagnosis and treatment, highlighting the importance of acting quickly.
“You’ve got to get that diagnosis made within the first 24 to 48 hours of feeling ill in order for these medications to have much effect,” he advised. “These diseases do masquerade as one another… it’s important to get that diagnosis established, and then if you do have COVID or influenza, there are medications that can be started.”
