US experiencing ‘steep rise’ in flu activity amid low vaccination rates, CDC warns

Texas and Georgia have already seen high levels of influenza

The autumn and winter flu season has started and illness is increasing across the US, a report from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to say.

A new CDC report on Friday will likely confirm the spread of flu and similar illnesses to further parts of the southeast and south-central US, where influenza has been reported in increasing numbers in recent weeks, NBC News reported on Thursday.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, told the news outlet on Thursday that the southeast and south-central US were those locations with the highest levels of flu.

While the flu season typically begins in October, a report from the CDC last week showed that states including Texas and Georgia were seeing higher levels of flu and other similar illness.

Dr Walensky said: “We’ve noted that flu activity is starting to increase across much of the country. Not everybody got flu vaccinated last year, and many people did not get the flu. So that makes us ripe to have potentially a severe flu season.”

As the NBC reported, the Friday update from the CDC on the spread of flu is expected to confirm that Arkansas, California, and Louisiana are also currently seeing increasing levels of flu, in addition to Texas and Georgia.

Doctors are not required to report every positive flu test result so the CDC monitors the situation by studying data on “influenza-like illnesses,” NBC News reported.

Such illnesses are those with a fever and a temperature of at least 100 degrees and a cough and/or sore throat without any other known cause, the news outlet said.

Dr James Cutrell, an infectious disease expert at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, told NBC News that the rise in influenza had ben steep this year in both children and adults.

It was unclear if this was because of the levels of flu vaccination however cited by Dr Walensky, with the health expert saying: “We are definitely seeing a pretty steep rise”.

That was seemingly backed by reports from the San Diego Unified School District in California, where a spokesperson told CNN on Thursday that 1,000 of 3,5000 children were currently off sick.

“So far Covid tests have been negative but several students have tested positive for flu,” school spokesperson Samer Naji said. “Typical signs and symptoms include cough, sore throat, runny nose, fever, and other upper respiratory infection symptoms. We are in close contact with San Diego County Public Health.”

This winter is the first with relaxed Covid restrictions across the US since the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in early 2020, which see a temporary end on indoor socialising and learning and enforced mask wearing in most states.