This year's flu season has reached the epidemic threshold with 15 influenza-associated deaths among children so far this season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week.
Twenty-two states reported high levels of influenza-like illnesses during the week ending Dec. 20, and 36 states reported widespread influenza activity, the
CDC's weekly influenza surveillance report said.
In Tennessee, at least six children have died from the flu this year, and the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital has seen
442 children with the flu this month, ABC News reported.
ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser said about 100 children die from flu-related causes each year.
Areas in the south are seeing the highest outbreak levels, and the Midwest is also being hit hard. Three children have died from the flu in Minnesota, according to news reports.
What's more,
this year’s flu shot is reportedly less effective than usual because the flu epidemic is a mutated strain of what experts anticipated when the vaccine was developed.
Twitter users sounded off on the flu epidemic.