Trending News Today: Current Flu Vaccine More Effective Than Last Season

Preliminary estimates suggest that the flu vaccine is 47% effective this season, outperforming the efficacy of the flu vaccine from the 2017-2018 season, CDC officials reported. According to the report, officials also estimated that the overall vaccine efficacy for children aged 6 months to 17 years of age was 61%. The data are based on approximately 3000 children and adults enrolled in the US Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network, the report noted.

A report from the American Cancer Society found that the cancer death racial gap is narrowing, but African Americans still make up a disproportionate share of the US cancer burden, NPR reported. According to the article, the report showed that from 2006 to 2015, overall death rates from cancer declined 2.6% per year among black men compared with 1.6% per year among white men. Among women, deaths rates from cancer declined 1.5% per year among blacks compared with 1.3% per year among whites, the article reported.

A new study has found clues that depression may lead to worsening cognitive problems, The Associated Press reported. According to the article, Yale University researchers used a new technique to conduct brain scans on living individuals and found that patients with depression had a lower density of synapses than healthy individuals at the same age. The researchers noted that studies tracking synaptic density in larger numbers of people as they get older are needed to confirm the link between the density of synapses and depression worsening, the article reported.