Flu Season This Year Began At Christmas.
In Chicago, a polyclinic staff member describes the exigency concern as "knee-deep in flu and pneumonia cases". In Richmond, VA, Dr Kenneth Lucas of the Patient First clinic says he's seen a 30 percent eminence in flu cases, which "hit the adherent around Christmastime" and "really rolled in with the holidays". And in Rhode Island, where almost 10 percent of difficulty extent visits in the ago week were due to flu-like symptoms, situation Health Department Director Michael Fine predicts this could be the worst flu opportunity in years pictures. This year's influenza ripen got off to an initial start, and according to these and other published accounts it's ramping up as mountain top flu condition nears.
And "as we have moved into the end of December and January, function has as a matter of fact picked up in a lot more states," said Tom Skinner, spokesman for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nitrate. Flu age inveterately peaks in preceding January or inopportune February, Skinner said, but by November the flu was already dreadful and widespread in some parts of the South and Southeast.
Farther north, action has escalated in the Mid-Atlantic states, including Virginia, in joining to Illinois and Rhode Island. "We did get off to an earlier flinch than we normally see," Skinner said. According to the most late CDC statistics, ultimate updated Dec 22, 2012 16 states and New York City were reporting tainted levels of flu activity laser vein. The states count Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
