Flu Season, Cdc | featured news

Influenza has officially reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with 7.3 percent of deaths last week caused by pneumonia and the flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. That is just above the epidemic threshold of 7.2 percent. Nine of the 10 U.S. regions had "elevated" flu activity, confirming that seasonal flu has spread across the country and reached high levels several weeks before the usual time of late January or February. The other region, the Southwest and California, had "normal" flu activity last week.

Flu activity remains high across the United States, but there are signs this year's bad season may be waning in some areas, government health officials said Friday.

This year’s flu season has kicked in early this year, with activity up significantly across the nation, particularly in the south and southeast, federal health officials say. The U.S. has logged baseline levels of flu, the earliest that has happened in nearly a decade.

The CDC says a third wave of the H1N1 pandemic is less likely in the U.S. Attention now turns to the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season is just beginning.