The 1918 flu pandemic spread in 3 distinct waves during an 12-month period in 1918–1919 with the first wave starting in the United States in March, 1918. Flu death rates then dipped slightly in 1917 but when the first of three pandemic influenza wave appeared in the spring of 1918, there was a succession of much more fatal waves in the fall and winter of 1918–1919. The 1957 flu pandemic also had waves of deaths.
The CDC is thus trying to get more people innoculated just in case there is a repeat of the 1917 or 1957 patterns.
http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htmJan. 7, 2010 - H1N1 swine flu is still here -- and now is the time for everyone to get their H1N1 vaccinations, the CDC urges.
The fall/winter wave of H1N1 swine flu ebbed in December. But there was a disturbing and unusual holiday uptick in flu hospitalizations and deaths.
Whether there will be a new wave of infections is anybody's bet, but history suggests it would be unwise to wager your health on the chance the pandemic is over. Anne Schuchat, MD, the CDC's chief of immunization and respiratory disease, points to a graph charting deaths in the 1957 pandemic.
That graph shows a steep decline in deaths in early January, followed by a steep increase in deaths during January and February that finally peaks in March.
Holiday Uptick in Severe H1N1 Swine Flu
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