Flu's risks can continue even after recovery, public health officials warn after historic flu season

We all know flu is bad. But after a historically severe flu season, public health researchers are warning it's even worse than many think, leading to increased risk of heart attack and stroke during recovery and an inability for some older people to recover completely.

"If you needed more reason to be vaccinated, how about those two?" Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said at a news conference Thursday.

Public health officials' annual push for everyone older than six months to be vaccinated follows a record number of deaths and hospitalizations from the flu last season: more than 80,000 deaths and 900,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. Typically public health researchers have used 56,000 as the upper bound on the number of deaths caused by flu each year.

"It was a significantly bad year," said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Dr. Daniel Jernigan.

What's more, vaccination rates in certain groups declined last year, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told reporters. Rates among children between 6 months and 4 years old decreased slightly last season, particularly troubling because kids that age are vulnerable to severe complications when they get sick, he said.

Last season, 180 flu deaths in kids were reported to the CDC, topping a previous record of 171. And researchers note that number is likely an under-estimation, given not all flu-related deaths are reported.

The disease is especially dangerous for the elderly as well. The flu causes a systemic inflammatory reaction that continues past the time people are in the acute stage of illness, Schaffner explained.

"It's why many people feel wiped out for two weeks or more after they have stopped coughing," Schaffner said. "This lingering inflammation can involve blood vessels, particularly to the heart and brain," which can lead to increased risk of heart attack and stroke during the two to four weeks of recovery from flu.

The disease can also lead to incomplete recovery among older and frail patients, he said.

"Flu can knock down that first domino of progressive decline, progressive disability," Schaffner explained. "When people who are already frail or on the edge get flu, they may never return to their pre-flu functional level."

And while those groups, along with pregnant women, are most at risk, officials warned that the young and healthy shouldn't be too cavalier about getting a flu shot: the flu can be severe for them, and not getting vaccinated can put others who are more vulnerable at risk.

"Getting the flu shot isn't just about keeping you safe and healthy, getting the flu shot is about community," Adams said. "Those 80,000 people who died last year from the flu – guess what? They got the flu from someone. Someone passed it along to them."

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