The burden of influenza in the United States can vary from year to year depending on which viruses are circulating, how many people receive an influenza vaccination, and how effective the vaccination is in that particular year. During the 2019-2020 flu season, around 25,000 people lost their lives to the disease. Although most people recover from influenza without needing medical care, the disease can be deadly among young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems or chronic illnesses.

Deaths due to influenza Even though most people recover from influenza without medical care, influenza and pneumonia can be deadly, especially for older people and those with certain preexisting conditions. Influenza is a common cause of pneumonia and although most cases of influenza do not develop into pneumonia, those that do are often more severe and more deadly. Deaths due to influenza are most common among the elderly, with a mortality rate of around 7.4 per 100,000 population during the 2021-2022 flu season. In comparison, the mortality rate for those aged 50 to 64 years was just 1.2 per 100,000 population.

Flu vaccinations The most effective way to prevent influenza is to receive a yearly influenza vaccination. These vaccines have proven to be safe and are usually cheap and easily accessible. Nevertheless, every year a large share of the population in the United States still fails to get vaccinated against influenza. For example, in the 2021-2022 flu season only 37 percent of those aged 18 to 49 years received a flu vaccination. Unsurprisingly, children and the elderly are the most likely to get vaccinated. It is estimated that during the 2021-2022 flu season vaccinations prevented over 618 thousand influenza cases among children aged 6 months to 4 years.

During the 2022-2023 flu season in the United States, around 21,401 people died from influenza. The vast majority of deaths due to influenza occur among the elderly, with those aged 65 years and older accounting for 15,399 deaths during the 2022-2023 flu season. During this time, the mortality rate from influenza among those aged 65 years and older was around 26.6 per 100,000 population, compared to a mortality rate of .7 per 100,000 population among those aged 18 to 49 years. Influenza deaths Although most people recover from influenza without the need of medical care, influenza and pneumonia are still major causes of death in the United States. Influenza is a common cause of pneumonia and cases in which influenza develops into pneumonia tend to be more severe and more deadly. However, the impact of influenza varies from year to year depending on which viruses are circulating. For example, during the 2017-2018 flu season around 51,000 people died due to influenza, whereas in 2022-2023 total deaths amounted to 21,000. Preventing death The most effective way to prevent influenza is to receive a yearly influenza vaccination. These vaccines have proven to be safe and are usually cheap and easily accessible. Each year, flu vaccinations prevent thousands of influenza cases, hospitalizations and deaths. It was estimated that during the 2022-2023 flu season, vaccinations prevented the deaths of around 2,479 people aged 65 years and older.

Over 12 million people in the United States died from all causes between the beginning of January 2020 and August 21, 2023. Over 1.1 million of those deaths were with confirmed or presumed COVID-19.

Vaccine rollout in the United States Finding a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine was an urgent health priority since the very start of the pandemic. In the United States, the first two vaccines were authorized and recommended for use in December 2020. One has been developed by Massachusetts-based biotech company Moderna, and the number of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines administered in the U.S. was over 250 million. Moderna has also said that its vaccine is effective against the coronavirus variants first identified in the UK and South Africa.

Between January and August 2020, there has been approximately 48.2 thousand deaths in England and Wales with COVID-19 as an underlying cause. As illustrated in the table, the number of deaths as a result of COVID-19 are much higher than from either pneumonia or influenza. There has been over three times the number of deaths from COVID-19 than pneumonia and influenza so far in 2020. The overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Influenza and pneumonia caused around 12.3 deaths in the U.S. per 100,000 population in 2019. Influenza and pneumonia are among the leading causes of death in the United States, accounting for around 1.6 percent of all deaths in 2020. Influenza, or the flu, is a viral infection that is highly contagious and especially common in the winter season. Influenza is a common cause of pneumonia, although most cases of the flu do not develop into pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection or inflammation of the lungs and is particularly deadly among young children and the elderly.

Influenza cases

Influenza is very common in the United States, with an estimated 35 million cases reported in 2019-2020. Common symptoms of the flu include cough, fever, runny or stuffy nose, sore throat and headache. Symptoms can be mild but can also be severe enough to require medical attention. In 2019-2020, there were around 16 million influenza-related medical visits in the United States.

Prevention

To prevent contracting the flu people can take everyday precautions such as regularly washing their hands and avoiding those who are sick, but the best way to prevent the flu is by receiving the flu vaccination every year. Receiving a flu vaccination is especially important for young children and the elderly as they are most susceptible to flu complications and associated death. In 2021, around 75 percent of those aged 65 years and older received a flu vaccine, while only 38 percent of those aged 18 to 49 years had done so.

The mortality rate from influenza in the United States is by far highest among those aged 65 years and older. During the 2022-2023 flu season the mortality rate from influenza for this age group was around 26.6 per 100,000 population.

The burden of influenza The impact of influenza in the U.S. varies from season to season, but in the 2022-2023 flu season there were an estimated 31 million cases. These cases resulted in around 360,000 hospitalizations. Although most people recover from influenza without requiring medical treatment, the disease can be deadly for young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems or chronic illnesses. During the 2022-2023 flu season, around 21,000 people in the U.S. lost their lives due to influenza.

Impact of vaccinations The most effective way to prevent influenza is to receive a yearly vaccination at the beginning of flu season. Flu vaccines are safe and can greatly reduce the burden of the disease. During the 2022-2023 flu season vaccinations prevented around 2,479 deaths among those aged 65 years and older. Although flu vaccines are usually cheap and easily accessible, every year a large share of the population in the U.S. still does not get vaccinated. For example, during the 2021-2022 flu season only about 37 percent of those aged 18 to 49 years received a flu vaccination.

Influenza, also called the flu, is one of the most infectious diseases worldwide. Its symptoms range from mild to severe, and include sore throat, cough, runny nose, fever, headache, and muscle pain, but can also cause severe illness and death among high-risk populations such as the elderly and children. During the 2022-2023 flu season, there were 31 million cases of influenza in the United States.

Influenza deaths Although influenza does not require medical attention for most people, it can be deadly, and causes thousands of deaths every year. The impact of influenza varies from year to year. The number of influenza deaths during the 2021-2022 flu season was 4,977. The vast majority of deaths attributed to influenza during the 2021-2022 flu season occurred among those aged 65 years and older.

Vaccination An annual influenza vaccination remains the most effective way of preventing influenza. During the 2021-2022 flu season, influenza vaccinations prevented an estimated 867 deaths among U.S. adults aged 65 years and older. Although, flu vaccinations are accessible and cheap, a large share of the United States population still fails to get vaccinated every year. In 2021-2022, only 37 percent of those aged 18 to 49 years received a flu vaccination, much lower compared to children and the elderly.

This dataset contains the following files for California influenza surveillance data: 1) Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Data by Region and Influenza Season from volunteer sentinel providers; 2) Clinical Sentinel Laboratory Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus Surveillance Data by Region and Influenza Season from volunteer sentinel laboratories; and 3) Public Health Laboratory Influenza Respiratory Virus Surveillance Data by Region and Influenza Season from California public health laboratories. The Immunization Branch at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) collects, compiles and analyzes information on influenza activity year-round in California and produces a weekly influenza surveillance report during October through May. The California influenza surveillance system is a collaborative effort between CDPH and its many partners at local health departments, public health and clinical laboratories, vital statistics offices, healthcare providers, clinics, emergency departments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). California data are also included in the CDC weekly influenza surveillance report, FluView, and help contribute to the national picture of Influenza activity in the United States. The information collected allows CDPH and CDC to: 1) find out when and where influenza activity is occurring; 2) track influenza-related illness; 3) determine what influenza viruses are circulating; 4) detect changes in influenza viruses; and 5) measure the impact influenza is having on hospitalizations and deaths.

India reported over 2,752 cases of swine flu, also known as influenza A (H1N1) between in 2020, with 44 deaths. The country saw an outbreak of this disease in 2015, recording over 42 thousand cases and 2,990 deaths.

The influenza A (H1N1) strain of virus was first recognized in 1919 but was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in 2009, lasting until August 2010 across the world.

Results data for the thesis on estimating the age-, sex-, cause-specific excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong and South Korea.Thesis abstractBackgroundFew studies used a consistent methodology and adjusted for the risk of influenza-like illness (ILI) in historical mortality trends when estimating and comparing the cause-specific excess mortality (EM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies demonstrated that excess mortality was widely reported from CVD and among the elderly. This study aims to estimate and compare the overall, age-, sex-, and cause-specific excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong (HK) and South Korea (SK) with consideration of the impact of ILI.MethodsIn this population-based study, we first fitted a generalized additive model to the monthly mortality data from Jan 2010 to Dec 2019 in HK and SK before the COVID-19 pandemic. Then we applied the fitted model to estimate the EM from Jan 2020 to Dec 2022. The month index was modelled with a natural cubic spline. Akaike information criterion (AIC) was used to select the number of knots for the spline and inclusion of covariates such as monthly mean temperature, absolute humidity, ILI consultation rate, and the proxy for flu activity.FindingsFrom 2020 to 2022, the EM in HK was 239.8 (95% CrI: 184.6 to 293.9) per 100,000 population. Excess mortality from respiratory diseases (RD) (ICD-10 code: J00-J99), including COVID-19 deaths coded as J98.8, was 181.3 (95% CrI: 149.9 to 210.4) per 100,000. Except for RD, the majority of the EM in HK was estimated from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) (22.4% of the overall EM), influenza and pneumonia (16.2%), ischemic heart disease (8.9%), ill-defined causes (8.6%) and senility (6.7%). No statistically significant reduced deaths were estimated among other studied causes.From 2020 to 2022, the EM in SK was 204.7 (95% CrI: 161.6 to 247.2) per 100,000 population. Of note, COVID-19 deaths in SK were not included in deaths from RD but were recorded with the codes for emergency use as U07.1 or U07.2. The majority of the EM was estimated from ill-defined causes (32.0% of the overall EM), senility (16.6%), cerebrovascular disease (6.8%) and cardiovascular diseases (6.1%). Statistically significant reduction in mortality with 95 CrI lower than zero was estimated from vascular, other and unspecified dementia (-26.9% of expected deaths), influenza and pneumonia (-20.7%), mental and behavioural disorders (-18.8%) and respiratory diseases (-7.7%).InterpretationExcluding RD in HK which includes COVID-19 deaths, the majority of the EM in HK and SK was from CVD and senility. Mortality from influenza and pneumonia was estimated to have a statistically significant increase in HK but a decrease in SK probability due to different coding practices. HK had a heavier burden of excess mortality in the elderly age group 70-79 years and 80 years or above, while SK had a heavier burden in the age group of 60-69 years. Both HK and SK have a heavier burden of excess mortality from males than females. Better triage systems for identifying high-risk people of the direct or indirect impact of the epidemic are needed to minimize preventable mortality.

Note: On April 30, 2024, the Federal mandate for COVID-19 and influenza associated hospitalization data to be reported to CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) expired. Hospitalization data beyond April 30, 2024, will not be updated on the Open Data Portal. Hospitalization and ICU admission data collected from summer 2020 to May 10, 2023, are sourced from the California Hospital Association (CHA) Survey. Data collected on or after May 11, 2023, are sourced from CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

Data is from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Respiratory Virus State Dashboard at https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Respiratory-Viruses/RespiratoryDashboard.aspx.

Data are updated each Friday around 2 pm.

For COVID-19 death data: As of January 1, 2023, data was sourced from the California Department of Public Health, California Comprehensive Death File (Dynamic), 2023–Present. Prior to January 1, 2023, death data was sourced from the COVID-19 case registry. The change in data source occurred in July 2023 and was applied retroactively to all 2023 data to provide a consistent source of death data for the year of 2023. Influenza death data was sourced from the California Department of Public Health, California Comprehensive Death File (Dynamic), 2020–Present.

COVID-19 testing data represent data received by CDPH through electronic laboratory reporting of test results for COVID-19 among residents of California. Testing date is the date the test was administered, and tests have a 1-day lag (except for the Los Angeles County, which has an additional 7-day lag). Influenza testing data represent data received by CDPH from clinical sentinel laboratories in California. These laboratories report the aggregate number of laboratory-confirmed influenza virus detections and total tests performed on a weekly basis. These data do not represent all influenza testing occurring in California and are available only at the state level.

NNDSS - TABLE 1R. Hepatitis C, perinatal infection to Influenza-associated pediatric mortality - 2020. In this Table, provisional cases* of notifiable diseases are displayed for United States, U.S. territories, and Non-U.S. residents. Notice: Data from California published in week 29 for years 2019 and 2020 were incomplete when originally published on July 24, 2020. On August 4, 2020, incomplete case counts were replaced with a "U" indicating case counts are not available for specified time period. Note: This table contains provisional cases of national notifiable diseases from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). NNDSS data from the 50 states, New York City, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories are collated and published weekly on the NNDSS Data and Statistics web page (https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/data-and-statistics.html). Cases reported by state health departments to CDC for weekly publication are provisional because of the time needed to complete case follow-up. Therefore, numbers presented in later weeks may reflect changes made to these counts as additional information becomes available. The national surveillance case definitions used to define a case are available on the NNDSS web site at https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/. Information about the weekly provisional data and guides to interpreting data are available at: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/infectious-tables.html. Footnotes: U: Unavailable — The reporting jurisdiction was unable to send the data to CDC or CDC was unable to process the data. -: No reported cases — The reporting jurisdiction did not submit any cases to CDC. N: Not reportable — The disease or condition was not reportable by law, statute, or regulation in the reporting jurisdiction. NN: Not nationally notifiable — This condition was not designated as being nationally notifiable. NP: Nationally notifiable but not published. NC: Not calculated — There is insufficient data available to support the calculation of this statistic. Cum: Cumulative year-to-date counts. Max: Maximum — Maximum case count during the previous 52 weeks. * Case counts for reporting years 2019 and 2020 are provisional and subject to change. Cases are assigned to the reporting jurisdiction submitting the case to NNDSS, if the case's country of usual residence is the U.S., a U.S. territory, unknown, or null (i.e. country not reported); otherwise, the case is assigned to the 'Non-U.S. Residents' category. Country of usual residence is currently not reported by all jurisdictions or for all conditions. For further information on interpretation of these data, see https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/document/Users_guide_WONDER_tables_cleared_final.pdf. †Previous 52 week maximum and cumulative YTD are determined from periods of time when the condition was reportable in the jurisdiction (i.e., may be less than 52 weeks of data or incomplete YTD data). § Please refer to the CDC WONDER publication for weekly updates to the footnote for this condition.

Effective September 27, 2023, this dataset will no longer be updated. Similar data are accessible from wonder.cdc.gov.

Deaths involving COVID-19, pneumonia, and influenza reported to NCHS by sex, age group, and jurisdiction of occurrence.

As of January 6, 2022, an average of 1,192 people per day have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. since the first case was confirmed in the country on January 20th the year before. On an average day, nearly 8,000 people die from all causes in the United States, based on data from 2019. Based on the latest information, roughly one in seven deaths each day were related to COVID-19 between January 2020 and January 2022. However, there were even days when more than every second death in the U.S. was connected to COVID-19. The daily death toll from the seasonal flu, using preliminary maximum estimates from the 2019-2020 influenza season, stood at an average of around 332 people. We have to keep in mind that a comparison of influenza and COVID-19 is somewhat difficult. COVID-19 cases and deaths are counted continuously since the begin of the pandemic, whereas flue counts are seasonal and often less accurate. Furthermore, during the last two years, COVID-19 more or less 'replaced' the flu, with COVID-19 absorbing potential flu cases. Many countries reported a very weak seasonal flu activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. But it has yet to be seen how the two infectious diseases will develop side by side during the winter season 2021/2022 and in the years to come.

Symptoms and self-isolation COVID-19 and influenza share similar symptoms – a cough, runny nose, and tiredness – and telling the difference between the two can be difficult. If you have minor symptoms, there is no need to seek urgent medical care, but it is recommended that you self-isolate, whereas rules vary from country to country. Additionally, rules depend on someone's vaccination status and infection history. However, if you think you have the disease, a diagnostic test can show if you have an active infection.

Scientists alert to coronavirus mutations The genetic material of the novel coronavirus is RNA, not DNA. Other notable human diseases caused by RNA viruses include SARS, Ebola, and influenza. A continual problem that vaccine developers encounter is that viruses can mutate, and a treatment developed against a certain virus type may not work on a mutated form. The seasonal flu vaccine, for example, is different each year because influenza viruses are frequently mutating, and it is critical that those genetic changes continue to be tracked.

Rank, number of deaths, percentage of deaths, and age-specific mortality rates for the leading causes of death, by age group and sex, 2000 to most recent year.