Name: Flu activity increasing sharply across the US
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New data just out from the CDC shows flu cases are now spreading nationwide.

The CDC saying flu activity has left tens of thousands of Americans hospitalized this season with flu related deaths also climbing.

An estimated 3,100 people have died from the flu so far, including five pediatric patients this week.

Officials are urging everyone ages 6 months and older who has not received a flu shot to get one.

We're joined now by CNN medical correspondent Meg Terrell.

This is a very, very serious flu season we are looking at.

Yeah, Brianna, the numbers certainly are heating up really quickly right now.

The latest update from the CDC, which was for the week that ended December 20th, so just before holiday travel for a lot of folks, it shows that 32 out of 40 jurisdictions have high or very high levels of flu activity right now.

In terms of severity, The CDC actually says that severity indicators are currently low at the moment, but

that flu activity is expected to continue for several weeks.

Those purple states are the ones that are seeing the highest flu activity and then followed by the dark red.

So states like New York, South Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado, seeing the highest levels of activity.

And of course, New York State just reported a few days ago that it recorded the highest number of flu cases that have been confirmed in that state on record.

And they've been tracking this since 2004.

Now they noted that some of that is due to more tracking, but not all of it.

And certainly shows that compared with even more recent years, this is a more severe flu season, at least in New York State.

They had a 38% increase week over week in flu cases there and a 68% or 63% increase in hospitalizations.

the CDC estimates that so far this season we've had at least 7 1/2 million illnesses with flu, 81,000 hospitalizations and 3,100 deaths.

They also reported five pediatric deaths in that week, which brings the total in the season to eight, which is just a tragic thing to hear.

Now, you may have been hearing about a new subclade, a new sort of strain of flu that we are experiencing here in the United States and we saw it in other countries as well.

It's called subclade K, and it represents sort of a drift of the virus.

The good news is, though, that experts say the flu vaccine should still provide protection against that strain of the virus.

It is just a little bit of a drift from what the flu vaccines were designed to protect against.

But they are still in place and out there for folks to get.

BRIANNA so what are the recommendations if people think they may have the flu?

So there are actually things you can do about the flu, which is a good thing.

First of all, of course, we were just mentioning flu shots.

Those are recommended as the best form of prevention and it's still not too late to go out and get one if you haven't had one already.

It takes maybe a week for the protection to start kicking in.

They are the best form of prevention against severe disease.

Flu and Covid combo home tests are now available.

And this is something that surprises a lot of folks, but

we all got used to testing ourselves at home for Covid over the last few years.

Very similar tests are now available which test you for flu A, flu B and COVID 19.

And antiviral drugs are available if you do test positive, particularly if you're in a high risk group, if you're over 65, if you have other health conditions, if you're pregnant or also for young children, it is recommended that you talk with a physician or a healthcare provider about an antiviral drug.

There are multiple drugs available by prescription, so sometimes telemedicine can be a good way of doing that.

They can shorten the duration of the illness and they can also lessen symptoms.

They are also available if you've been exposed, maybe a household member, you can get an antiviral drug and that can help prevent you from getting the flu as well.

So some options out there, Brianna, in addition to wash your hands, stay home, do all the things you do when you're sick to take care of yourself.

Yeah, that's really interesting about getting the antiviral.

If you've had an exposure in the house, I think a lot of people may not realize that.

Joining us now is CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, Dr.

Talk to us a little bit about why so many people are getting sick with the flu right now and this specific variant.

Well, every year there's a dominant variant and this year it's a variant of influenza a.

And you identified it as a particular serotype called subclay.

And around the United states, that's about 90% of the infections.

We see a lot of influenza at this time of the year because it's a seasonal virus.

And we also see a lot of influenza at this time of the year because a lot of people have not been not been vaccinated a Poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation a week or two ago showed that of respondents, only about 42% of adults have been vaccinated.

So I think to date we've only distributed about 130 million doses of vaccine in this country.

So there are a lot of people who are unprotected.

And I should add that even if the virus doesn't, excuse me, even if the vaccine doesn't prevent you from acquiring the virus, it is really good at preventing you from, from getting very sick.

And we're seeing a lot of hospitalizations in the last few weeks.

For instance, New York State has seen about a 60% increase in the number of people being hospitalized for influenza.

I think last week they saw the greatest number of infections in one week that they've ever recorded.

So there's a lot of virus around and it's not too late to get vaccinated.

So this approach, like you say, a lot of people are not getting vaccinated.

As I know you're saying, hey, it doesn't mean you're not necessarily not going to get the flu, but

what it means is that it's not going to be terrible.

But why should people be really thinking about getting the flu shot?

Well, first of all, if you have certain risk factors, if you're an adult and have certain risk factors like heart disease, lung disease, if you're over the age of 65, if you have asthma, if you're a resident or your parents are a resident of a long term facility, you're at risk of dying from influenza.

So all those people at high risk should be vaccinated.

And when I see people in clinic every week, I sit and talk to them about it.

The most common reason why a person doesn't get vaccinated, they say, oh, one time I got the shot and I got the flu.

They didn't get the flu as a consequence of the vaccine, they might have had maybe a short period of pain in their arm and maybe a very brief fever, which is the immune reaction after getting vaccinated.

But the vaccine did not give them the flu.

The other group that's at really high risk are kids under the age of two.

Last year there were about 40,000 hospitalizations for kids, about half of that in children under the age of five.

So it's really important to vaccinate your kids.

Almost 300 children died last year of influenza.

And as you said at the open, already this year we've recorded eight pediatric deaths.

So vaccinate your kids, vaccinate yourself.

When you do vaccinate kids, I mean, when you're talking about those deaths, I'm sure that is predominantly among unvaccinated children.

But when you do vaccinate your kids, how much protection are you seeing in terms of them not being hospitalized and not dying?

So there's about a 75% reduction in hospitalization for kids who are vaccinated.

And last year of almost 300 children who died of influenza, 90% were unvaccinated.

So the vaccine is really, really effective at preventing death from this in kids.

And CDC still recommends vaccinating everybody over the age of six months.

Very good advice as people are going to be gathering together for the New Year.