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The U.S. is experiencing its most intense flu season in 15 years, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency reported Friday that 7.8 percent of visits for respiratory illness to outpatient providers reported this week were people with influenza, the worst since 2009 to 2010.
It also reported 10 additional influenza-associated pediatric deaths, making a total of 57 this season.
So far, there have been at least 13,000 deaths, 310,000 hospitalizations, and 24 million flu illnesses.
Across the country, many states have high to very high levels of influenza, a weekly CDC map showed.
The most affected states were in the South, Midwest, and Northeast regions.
Jeff Meador, a spokesman for Texas’ Godley Independent School District, told The Associated Press this week that this is the worst flu season he could remember. The flu has forced the district to close, with 650 students and 60 staff were out sick on Tuesday.
Schools have closed in at least 10 states, according to TODAY.com.
In Illinois, health authorities reported to WSIL that while Covid and RSV are declining, flu cases are rising.
The Pope County School District closed late last month.
“We had over 40 percent of all of our students out. And then we also had about 24 staff members out that day, too. And that’s anything from custodians to teachers to individual aides, classroom aides,” Superintendent Ryan Fritch told the station.
The second surge amid waves of norovirus and other viral infections have stressed hospitals, with some implementing restrictive measures and asking people to wear masks.
Health officials recommend that everyone six months and older receive an annual flu shot. About the same amount of adults got their flu vaccinations this winter as they did last year. But numbers for children were about five percent lower than typical, which is usually about 50 percent. The government has yet to report its estimates of how well this season’s flu vaccine is working.
“What worries us the most are bacterial infections that can follow alongside influenza [and] get kids super, super sick. … Flu itself and those complications can lead to death in children. … Influenza is very scary,” Dr. Jason Newland, the division chief of infectious diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, told TODAY.com.
With reporting from The Associated Press
