- The United Kingdom today reported one more clade 1b mpox case, in the third household member of the country’s first imported case, the Health Security Agency (HSA) said today in an update. The UK has now reported four cases, the first cluster outside of Africa. The latest patient is receiving care at a hospital in London. Health officials said further cases in the same household aren’t surprising, given how infectious it is in that setting. The UK’s index patient was exposed to the virus during recent travel to African countries experiencing mpox outbreaks.
- Over the last 2 days, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed one more H5N1 avian flu outbreak in dairy cattle, which involves a ninth herd in Utah. The event pushes the national total in dairy cows to 443 outbreaks across 15 states. Also, APHIS confirmed one more H5N1 outbreak in poultry, which involves backyard birds in Montana’s Flathead County.
- The UK’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) yesterday raised the risk level for highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza from medium to high following the identification of H5N5 at a commercial poultry farm in Yorkshire. It said though detections in wild birds in recent years have been dominated by H5N1, the identification of H5N5 was likely and follows earlier detections in Great Britain and continental Europe.
Quick takes: UK reports 4th clade 1b mpox case, more avian flu in US cows and poultry, UK raises H5 risk level
News brief
Flu deaths high in hospitalized elderly, up to 30 days after discharge, new data show
News brief
A new study based on pre–COVID-19-pandemic data from nine US states shows that all-cause mortality burden is substantial among patients hospitalized with flu. The study is published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The study collected data from the 2010-11 through 2018-19 seasons from the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network, then linked flu cases to death certificates to find patients who died from any cause during their influenza hospital stay or within 30 days post discharge.
In total, among 121,390 patients hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza over 9 seasons, 5.5% of case-patients died. And 48% of deaths occurred within 30 days of hospital discharge. The average time between discharge and death was 9 days.
Among those who died, 76% were age 65 years or older, and 71% were non-Hispanic White.
Older adults carry residual risk of death
Only 37% of deaths had "influenza" on their death certificate, the authors said.
"Among patients that died post-discharge, 36.9% were discharged to a nursing home or long-term care facility, 36.7% to hospice, and 23.3% to a private residence," the authors said.
Patients who died within a month of hospital discharge were more likely to have one or more of several underlying health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, immunosuppressive conditions, chronic metabolic disease and neurologic disease.
Medical providers should be aware of the residual risk for mortality soon after discharge from an influenza-associated hospitalization, particularly among older adults.
"Medical providers should be aware of the residual risk for mortality soon after discharge from an influenza-associated hospitalization, particularly among older adults," the authors concluded. "Influenza surveillance systems should consider capture of post-discharge outcomes to better characterize immediate and short-term impacts of influenza on morbidity and mortality."
