The flu has reached epidemic levels in the US, marking an earlier-than-usual arrival that follows warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that this season may be a severe one. The CDC reports that 15 children have already died from the flu this season. Widespread flu activity has also been reported in 36 states, with most of the others showing regional flu activity. The lighter activity is largely in western and noncontiguous states. 
 
 Widespread flu activity has been detected in 36 states 
 
 That the flu has reached epidemic status is not unexpected — this is a regular part of flu season — but it has reached epidemic levels somewhat earlier than it usually does. The last two flu seasons were declared to be epidemics in mid-January. The flu also leads to deaths each year, which is what the agency uses to determine epidemic status. 
 
 Earlier this month, the CDC said that the type of flu virus circulating this year typically lends to a more severe season. On top of that, about half of the viruses the CDC had been finding were drift variants from what this year's vaccine covers, potentially reducing its effectiveness. "Vaccination has been found to provide some protection against drifted viruses in past seasons," CDC directed Tom Frieden said at the time. "Also, vaccination will offer protection against other flu viruses that may become more common later in the season." ||||| Continue reading the main story Percentage of visits to doctors and hospitals for “influenza-like illness” % 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 2014 Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March April 2010–2011 
 
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 "Swine Flu" 
 
 2012–2013 Percentage of visits to doctors and hospitals for “influenza-like illness” % 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 2014 Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March April 2009–2010 “Swine Flu” This Year’s Flu Is Outpacing Those From Recent Years Flu season has just started, but the rate is higher than the rates from any recent December. Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story 
 
 At Nazareth Academy, a Catholic high school just outside Chicago, a full quarter of the 780 students were out with the flu in early December, along with more than a dozen teachers. Officials at the school closed it for two days and disinfected the property. 
 
 The principal, Deborah Tracy, said it was the first time in her 15 years there that such a measure had been necessary. “It just really was unprecedented for here,” she said. 
 
 Nationwide, we’re on track for a nasty flu season, with both a large number of cases and many severe ones that require hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It declared an influenza epidemic this week, a status achieved at some point nearly every year, though not usually this early in the season. Twenty-two states and Puerto Rico are reporting high flu intensity. In some parts of the country, flu infections have outpaced those from each of the last few years, according to data from the C.D.C. 
 
 Google Flu Trends, which measures flu intensity using search terms, shows a similar pattern of high flu activity. 
 
 The worrisome outlook is the result of a confluence of factors: an early start to the flu season, with more people sick in December than usual; a strain that tends to make people sicker; a relatively low vaccination rate; and a mismatch between this year’s flu vaccine and the virus that’s making people sick. 
 
 “We’re already above the peak that we saw last year, and we’re increasing,” said Dr. Michael Jhung, a medical officer at the Influenza Division of the C.D.C. who predicts it will be several more weeks before flu infections peak. 
 
 The C.D.C. tracks flu deaths, hospitalizations and the percentage of doctors’ visits for flulike illness. The detailed, public data make it easy to watch the flu take off this year. Google Flu Trends tells a similar story, although its algorithm has been criticized for overestimating the prevalence of the flu. But it has also been endorsed by epidemiologists and published in medical journals, and a new Google flu tool allows you to look at the misery down to the level of the city. 
 
 Continue reading the main story Flu Intensity Is Already High in 22 States and Puerto Rico The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measures flu intensity on a scale of 1 to 10, based on the number of people visiting doctors and hospitals with flulike symptoms. The flu season usually peaks in February. Alabama 10 Oct. Dec. Arkansas 10 Oct. Dec. Florida 10 Oct. Dec. Georgia 10 Oct. Dec. Idaho 8 Oct. Dec. Illinois 10 Oct. Dec. Indiana 10 Oct. Dec. Kansas 10 Oct. Dec. Kentucky 9 Oct. Dec. Louisiana 10 Oct. Dec. Maryland 10 Oct. Dec. Minnesota 10 Oct. Dec. Mississippi 10 Oct. Dec. Missouri 10 Oct. Dec. New Jersey 10 Oct. Dec. N.C. 10 Oct. Dec. Ohio 8 Oct. Dec. P.R. 10 Oct. Dec. S.C. 10 Oct. Dec. Texas 10 Oct. Dec. Utah 9 Oct. Dec. Virginia 10 Oct. Dec. Wisconsin 10 Oct. Dec. Alabama 10 Oct. Dec. Arkansas 10 Oct. Dec. Florida 10 Oct. Dec. Georgia 10 Oct. Dec. Idaho 8 Oct. Dec. Illinois 10 Oct. Dec. Indiana 10 Oct. Dec. Kansas 10 Oct. Dec. Kentucky 9 Oct. Dec. Louisiana 10 Oct. Dec. Maryland 10 Oct. Dec. Minnesota 10 Oct. Dec. Mississippi 10 Oct. Dec. Missouri 10 Oct. Dec. New Jersey 10 Oct. Dec. N.C. 10 Oct. Dec. Ohio 8 Oct. Dec. P.R. 10 Oct. Dec. S.C. 10 Oct. Dec. Texas 10 Oct. Dec. Utah 9 Oct. Dec. Virginia 10 Oct. Dec. Wisconsin 10 Oct. Dec. 
 
 Columbia, S.C., for example, is suffering one doozy of a season, according to the Google data. Dr. Helmut Albrecht, the chief of infectious disease at the University of South Carolina, confirms as much. “We call it a bad flu season when 5 to 6 percent of our emergency room visits are for flulike illness,” he said. “We are between 17 and 20 percent.” 
 
 Dr. Anna-Kathryn Rye, the director of pediatric infectious diseases at Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital, says flu infection rates among children are two to three times what she sees in a typical year. She said her pediatrician friends had posted on Facebook “that they are tired, and can’t wait for the flu to go away.” 
 
 “They are busy, and they are overbooked,” she said. “They have seen a lot of kids — and they all have the flu.” 
 
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 For most people who catch it, influenza is unpleasant but not serious. But the disease can cause as many as 40,000 deaths a year, primarily among older people and those with compromised immune systems. The flu that’s circulating this year is a type called H3N2, which tends to spread widely and can cause serious illness. 
 
 Right now, the flu is spreading fastest in the Southeast and the Midwest. Dayton, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tenn., are some of the places experiencing intense flu seasons, according to the Google data. But because the flu tends to move around the country, places that have been spared so far may just end up with more sick people next year. 
 
 Doctors know more than ever about where the flu is and how fast it is spreading, but Dr. Jhung said the medical system still had not made much headway in reducing the toll of influenza. Though the C.D.C. now recommends vaccination for everyone older than 6 months, vaccinations remain at less than 50 percent of the population. With so few people protected, it’s still relatively easy for the virus to spread each year; there are lots of susceptible people, and the airborne virus moves around quickly. 
 
 This year, that problem may be worse than usual. Though the vaccine includes an H3N2 flu, the strain it targets isn’t a perfect match for the one that’s going around. That means that the vaccine is less effective than normal. Ideally, with a weaker vaccine, you’d want more people to be inoculated. But some people, hearing the message about the vaccine’s limited effectiveness, may have skipped it this year. There are other flu strains circulating, too, and people who don’t get a shot may be at risk of catching another variety as well. 
 
 Flu seasons wax and wane, Dr. Jhung said, but the intensity of a flu season typically depends more on the particular bug in a given year than anything else. Two years ago, another H3N2 virus was prevalent, and the flu season was also quite severe. Last year was milder, in part because a different flu strain predominated. ||||| December 31, 2014 10:52 AM 
 
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 (CBS) — This season’s flu outbreak has reached the epidemic level, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports it’s expected to get even worse in the coming weeks. 
 
 Fifteen children nationwide have died of influenza since the 2014-15 flu season began this fall. The number of people being hospitalized for the flu is also on the rise, with those age 65 and older especially at risk. 
 
 The CDC says 22 states are seeing high levels of illness — including Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin — up from 13 states a week earlier. 
 
 And the flu’s geographic reach is increasing too, with widespread cases reported in 36 states. 
 
 Dr. Scott Dresden of Northwestern University says the hospital started seeing flu case in mid to late November. 
 
 “The numbers have reached epidemic proportions, which isn’t surprising for this time of year, it’s just a little bit earlier than we usually see it,” Dr. Dresden said. 
 
 Last year: flu cases starting popping up in January, this year, almost a month and half earlier. 
 
 “It may be that we have an early spike and it fizzles out earlier or it may just be a longer, tougher flu season,” Dr. Dresden said. 
 
 Health officials are encouraging people to get a flu shot even though this year’s vaccine formula does not offer as much protection as usual. A prevalent strain of the virus this year, H3N2, mutated enough that it’s no longer a close match for the vaccine developed to block it. 
 
 CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook said that because of this mismatch, the current flu vaccine will probably be about a third less effective than normal. 
 
 Read more at CBSNews.com ||||| The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared this week that flu and pneumonia deaths have reached “epidemic” levels for the year. 
 
 To reach an epidemic threshold, according to the CDC, flu and pneumonia deaths must account for 6.8 percent of the total nationwide fatalities. During the 51st week of the year, local officials reported 837 flu and pneumonia deaths out of the 12,358 total, just meeting the agency's epidemic-threshold rating. 
 
 (MORE: 6 Reasons to Get a 2014 Flu Shot) 
 
 This year, there have been 15 pediatric deaths from the virus. Children under the age of 5 and seniors are more likely to be hospitalized with the flu than any other age group, the CDC noted in its latest report. And this trend is likely to continue as winter goes on. 
 
 Flu can also lead to deadly pneumonia in children, adults older than 65 and those with compromised immune systems, which is why the CDC recommends any individual in those categories get the pneumococcal vaccine as well as a flu shot every year. 
 
 To date, 36 U.S. states report widespread flu activity. Washington D.C. and another 11 U.S. states or territories have reported regional or localized flu cases. 
 
 The majority strain circulating is still H3N2. Earlier this year, CDC officials warned this year's formulation of the vaccine might be less effective in fighting H3N2, due to a viral mutation. Still, a third of the H3N2 samples tested last week matched with the strain contained in this year's flu shot, suggesting the vaccine is still an effective method in fighting the flu. 
 
 H3 viruses are known to be particularly dangerous, CDC Director Thomas Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., said at a press conference earlier this year. “We know that in seasons when H3 viruses predominant, we tend to have seasons that are the worst flu years, with more hospitalizations from flu and more deaths from the flu,” he said. 
 
 Dr. Frieden also emphasized the importance of early treatment with antiviral medications after an individuals feels the first early symptoms of the flu. “It's especially important to get antiviral medicines quickly if you have flu,” he said. “They work best when you start them within two days of the beginning of flu symptoms, and we strongly recommend that if doctors suspect the flu in someone who may be severely ill from the flu, they don't wait for the results of a flu test before starting antivirals.” 
 
 MORE ON WEATHER.COM: The Top 10 Health Stories of 2014 ||||| Google.org home 
 
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– Brace yourself: All signs point to a particularly bad flu season, reports the Upshot blog at the New York Times. For one thing, the CDC says the nation has reached the epidemic stage, and while that designation usually arrives every year, it's earlier than normal. The Verge notes that we didn't hit epidemic level until mid-January in the last two flu seasons. Also not helping: The number of people getting flu shots is lower than normal, and the vaccine itself is a worse match than usual for this year's strain. The mismatch means that the shot is about one-third less effective than normal, reports CBS News. “We’re already above the peak that we saw last year, and we’re increasing,” says a flu expert at the CDC, who predicts that this season's peak probably won't arrive for weeks. The agency says 22 states are now reporting high levels of the flu, up from 13 last week. Google Flu Trends reports much the same. One last piece of the puzzle: This year's most prevalent strain is H3N2, and H3 viruses in general tend to be the most dangerous, reports the Weather Channel.