流感活动可能会继续根据一份报告，在接下来的几周内，美国将会增加疾病控制和预防中心的顶级流感流行病学家。
“现在外面有很多流感，”凯莉·里德医生，流行病学主任疾病预防控制中心流感预防部门司，告诉美国广播公司新闻。
“我们经常看到活动持续到春天...我认为现实情况是，这种情况还会持续一段时间，”她继续说道。
疾病控制中心的最新估计表明本季度迄今为止，至少有1100万人患病，12万人住院，5000人死于流感。
“根据我们目前看到的数据，这可能是一个较低的估计，”他补充说，联邦卫生局通常会公布较低的估计范围。
一种新的变体这个夏天第一次出现，被称为子段落K成为优势菌株，CDC数据显示。子代码K是H3N2病毒的变体，H3 N2病毒本身是甲型流感的亚型。
自9月30日以来检测的994份流感样本中，几乎所有都是甲型流感。在那些经过进一步测试的样品中粗略地90%是H3N2，疾控中心数据显示。
里德说:“K亚段病毒已经获得了一些突变，这使得它与疫苗中的病毒和过去几年中流行的病毒略有不同。”
公共卫生专家目前建议，除了极少数例外，年龄在6个月及以上的每个人都要接种年度流感疫苗。
尽管目前的流感疫苗与K亚型疫苗并不完全匹配，但它仍有望提供一些针对新变种的保护，并降低严重疾病、住院和死亡的风险。
里德补充说，新的变种不似乎引发了更严重的疾病。
她说:“疫苗仍然有好处，即使病毒已经偏离了疫苗中的成分。”。“我们还没有看到住院率和死亡率像(医生出诊)那样增加，尽管这也是我们继续关注的事情。"
对于那些生病的人，有药物可用的抗病毒药物，可能帮助减轻疾病的严重程度和持续时间。
里德说，对于那些感染流感并有更高风险患上严重疾病的人来说，他们应该尽早寻求治疗，并与他们的医生谈论接受抗流感病毒药物的处方。
她解释说，已经发现抗流感病毒药物可以缩短病程，降低严重疾病、住院和死亡的风险。
卫生官员强调，如果人们还没有注射流感疫苗，现在注射还为时不晚。
“还有时间接种流感疫苗，”里德说。“接种疫苗后，你的免疫反应确实需要几周时间才能恢复，但这确实意味着有更多周的流感活动受益于流感疫苗的保护。”
Flu activity in US could continue to rise for weeks, top CDC epidemiologist says
Flu activity could continueto increase in the U.S. over the next few weeks, according to atop flu epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"There's a lot of influenza out there right now,"Dr. Carrie Reed, chief of the epidemiologyand prevention branch of the CDC's influenzadivision, told ABC News.
"We often see activity continue into the spring ... I think the reality is that it's going to continue to be elevated for a little bit longer," she continued.
The CDC'slatest estimatesindicate that there have been at least 11 million illnesses, 120,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths from flu so far this season.
"That's likely a low estimate based on the data that we're seeing so far,"Reed said, adding that the federal health agency typically publishes the lower range of the estimates.
A new variantthat first emerged in the summer, known as subclade K, hasbecome the dominant strain, CDC data shows.Subclade K is a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is itself a subtype of influenza A.
Of the 994 flu samples tested since Sept. 30,nearly all were influenza A.Of those samples that underwent further testingroughly90%were H3N2,CDC data shows.
"Subclade K has acquired some mutations in the virus that make it a little bit different than what's in the vaccine and what was circulating over the last couple years," Reed said.
Public health experts currently recommend that everyone ages 6 months and older, with rare exceptions, get an annual flu vaccine.
Although the current flu vaccine is not a perfect match to subclade K, it is still expected to offer some protection against the new variant and lower the risk of serious disease, hospitalization and death.
Reed added that the new variant does notappear to be driving more severe illness yet.
"There are still benefits to vaccine, even if the virus [has] somewhat drifted from what's in the vaccine," she said."We haven't seen increases in hospitalization and mortality yet in the ways that we have with [doctors' visits], although that's something that we continue to watch for as well."
For those who have gotten sick, there are medicinesavailable, known as antivirals, that mayhelp reduce the severity and length of illness.
Reed said for those who contract the flu and have a higher risk of severe disease, they should seek care early and speak with their doctor about receiving a prescription for flu antivirals.
She explained that flu antivirals have been found to reduce the duration of illness as well as lower the risk for severe disease, hospitalization and death.
Health officials have stressed that it is not too late for people get a flu shot if they haven't received one yet.
"There's still time to get a flu vaccine,"Reed said. "It does take a couple weeks for your immune response to pick up after vaccination, but that does mean there's many more weeks of flu activity to benefit from the protection of an influenza vaccine."
