With flu season's arrival, health officials with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services are encouraging residents to protect themselves, their families and other people around them by getting vaccinated against the flu.
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With flu activity in North Carolina remaining widespread, state health officials are continuing to encourage North Carolinians to get vaccinated. Interim estimates of vaccine effectiveness released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the vaccine is approximately 36 percent effective this season and 59 percent effective for children 6 months to 8 years old.
Governor Roy Cooper today urged all North Carolinians to take extra precautions to avoid catching or spreading the flu virus during peak flu season. Influenza has claimed the lives of at least 140 North Carolinians since flu season began in October.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is reporting the state's first child death from flu for the 2017-18 flu season. A child in the central part of the state died last week from complications associated with influenza infection. To protect the family's privacy, the child's hometown, county and gender are not being released.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services today announced the state's first flu-related deaths of the 2017-18 season after two adults died of complications from influenza infection from mid-to-late October. One of the deaths occurred in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and the other occurred in the eastern region of the state.
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen, M.D., got her flu shot Thursday and encouraged others to get vaccinated, too, with the flu season underway.
North Carolina First Lady Kristin Cooper joined State Health Director Betsey Tilson, M.D., on Tuesday at Wake County Human Services to encourage North Carolinians to get vaccinated against the flu.
Twenty flu deaths were reported in North Carolina for the week ending March 11, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
An additional 17 flu deaths were reported in North Carolina for the week ending March 4, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Flu activity has started to decrease but the virus is still widespread in the state.
The number of confirmed flu cases and flu-related deaths is rising in North Carolina as the peak of the 2016-17 flu season nears, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.