This year’s flu season has gotten off to a much slower start than past some years, according to Pennsylvania Department of Health. By this time last year, there were thousands of people suffering from flu, but this time, flu has treaded lightly.

This year, from the start of flu season to December 19, Pennsylvania has about 492 confirmed cases of the flu, including two deaths, as per reports of the state Department of Health. The figure is just a fraction of last year’s thousands of confirmed cases in the same period.

Lehigh and Northampton counties have just 53 cases of flu by December 19. Northampton County has about 38 cases, while rests are of the Lehigh Valley. “We're really talking about a handful of cases, for all practical purposes”, said Dr. Jeffrey Jahre from St. Luke's University Health Network.

Jahre also said that it’s a welcoming change. The past few flu seasons were particularly bad, but this season has been mild by comparison, the doctor added. If the state Health Department’s records of last year’s flu season are considered, then it is found that the state had over 55,000 confirmed cases of flu, including more than 200 deaths.

What are reasons behind this year’s less number of flu cases? Experts believe that last season's flu vaccine was a poor match to the dominant flu strain. The CDC believes this year’s vaccine is much better. Some experts also expect that this year’s flu season will in February.