Poll: Which States are Most Prone to the Flu

How likely you are to get the flu can be effected by where you live, according to the results of a poll that determined which states had the highest flu rates.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index started tracking where Americans were reporting having the flu back in 2008. Like each previous year, 2013 pollsters from Gallup asked 500 Americans every night if they had the flu or a cold the previous day.

The data showed that Vermont, South, Carolina, and North Dakota had the lowest daily flu rates; while New York, Nevada, and California boasted the highest flu rates.

Not surprised? Of course, the spread of influenza, an airborne virus transmitted through coughing and sneezing, is more likely to spread and infect in highly populated and more-metropolitan states; but interestingly, since the start of the Gallup polling project, California is the only state that has been one of the top ten most infected states every year. Similarly, Mississippi is the sole state to remain in the top 10 states with the lowest daily flu reports.

The frequent changing of state infection rates year to year is likely because the influenza virus remains as unpredictable as it was a decade ago. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the strain of influenza virus effecting the U.S. each season commonly swaps with another or even mutates. The 2013-2014 virus strain, for instance, is a H1N1 strain the U.S. has not seen since 2009. The virus is acting a bit different than its previous epidemic too, hospitalizing the young and obese more than any other influenza virus within the last decade.

Of course, changing appetites and tendencies of the influenza virus means states with very different demographics will see very different results from year to year. States with both high obesity rate and concentrated populations, like Texas for instance, are likely more susceptible to having a higher rate of infection this year compared to last year.

Still, Gallup argues that access to the flu vaccine is likely to have the heaviest impact on their data year to year. States with more citizens who lack health insurance or access to health care are more likely to show higher infections rates.

This year's flu vaccine is approximately 61 percent effective at preventing an influenza infection, meaning that this year's Gallup data is all the more prone to being effected by vaccine availability state to state.

The data was published by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project team on February 28.

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