According to the CDC, influenza is now widespread across the entire continental United States, the first time that the virus has been deemed “widespread” in all 48 states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there’s widespread flu activity from this season’s outbreak in all of the continental US – something that hasn’t happened in the CDC’s 13 years of tracking the spread of influenza via particular surveillance. The current flu season started earlier than in the past and is likely peaking, according to the CDC.
“I think the simplest way to describe it is that flu is everywhere in the US right now. There’s lots of flu in lots of places,” Dr Dan Jernigan, director of the CDC’s Influenza Division, said during a recent briefing on US flu activity.
The CDC reports that so far this season, influenza A, H3N2, has been the most common form of influenza circulating, and that such viruses are often linked to more severe illness among adults 65 and older and children.
Tied to the flu, the agency recorded 22.7 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in the US for the week ending Jan. 6, and says there have been 20 pediatric deaths associated with influenza during the 2017-2018 flu season.
