December 13, 2019: Influenza activity has been rising since mid-November and is particularly active in the Southeast US. Much of the rest of the country has yet to see significant levels of flu. Click on the title for more information.
Click here for the weekly CDC situation update.
Some perspective on the pediatric deaths Each year since 2004, CDC has tracked the number of pediatric deaths due to seasonal flu (winter season flu). In the 2003-2004 flu season, 154 children died throughout the nation from "Fujian flu", a particularly severe strain. Since then, the number of deaths nationally has ranged from 78 to 175 per flu season. There are approximately 80 million children under age 18 living in the United States. For perspective, consider that approximately 2,000 children die each year in auto accidents.
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November 9 2019: Influenza activity has begun to increase over the past 2 weeks. Louisiana currently is reporting high activity. Most of the remainder of the country has very low levels of influenza, with a few states reporting moderate activity.