Flu Cases Expected to Rise in Missouri as New Strain Emerges

A new flu strain is spreading across Missouri and the U.S., and this year’s vaccine is not a perfect match. MU Health Care infectious disease specialist Doctor Taylor Nelson explains what that means.

“There may be some higher risk of acquiring infection even if you've been vaccinated, but there will still be protections generally from severe illness, hospitalization and death. So, I think the mismatch is really just in the details of the strain and acquiring infection rather than necessarily an increased risk of severe outcomes.”

Some headlines are calling it the ‘super-flu,’

Nelson explains, “I think super flu maybe implies that the virus itself is extra bad, right? And I think at least the data we have to this point doesn't necessarily support that. It makes people sicker or causes more hospitalizations or more deaths than we're used to seeing with other strains. So, I think that is a little bit potentially misleading.”

She says flu cases are rising in Europe and may be linked to this new strain. Health experts will keep monitoring to see how it affects the U.S. in the weeks ahead.

“I would say over the last week or two, we've started to see an increase in cases identified and a small increase in the number of hospitalizations, at least within our healthcare system. So, I would say it's just starting to pick up in Europe or other places. Certainly, their numbers have also been up. So, I would anticipate a pretty healthy flu season.”

Nelson says the strain, called subclade K, is circulating now and recommends getting vaccinated soon since it takes several weeks for protection to fully develop.