Flu Season Is Already Off to a Bad Start

By Rachael Rettner

Flu season is underway in the United States, and a new report shows that flu activity is already higher than typical for this time of year.

During the week that ended Nov. 25 (the most recent period for which data is available), three Southern states — Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — reported high levels of flu activity; one state (Georgia) reported moderate flu activity, and the rest reported either low or minimal flu activity, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At this same time last year, no states were reporting high levels of flu activity.

The new CDC report, published Dec. 7, also said that during the week of Thanksgiving, the percentage of people visiting the doctor for flu-like illness was 2.3 percent, which is slightly above the “national baseline” for flu visits — the threshold for what’s typically seen in the off-season — which is 2.2 percent. At this time last year, the percentage of people visiting the doctor for flu-like illness was only 1.9 percent.

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