Health experts in Texas continue to keep an eye on flu cases with an active flu season underway.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, flu monitoring indicates the Texas flu season kicked off a few weeks earlier than usual this year. As the holidays approach, state health officials encourage Texans to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their families from the flu.
The CDC has seven states, plus Washington, D.C., in the highest category for flu activity, shown in purple on the map below. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia are all categorized as “very high.”
It’s not much better in Texas, which is in the second-worst category (brown on the CDC map).
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the number of people testing positive for influenza and the number of hospital visits for the flu both increased from late October into early November.
At least 546 Texans have died from pneumonia and/or influenza so far this flu season. Most of those deaths are in the 65-and-over population, but two children have also died.
Behind Texas and Maryland are five more states in auburn: Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey and New Mexico.
The CDC map isn’t based on confirmed influenza lab tests but rather tracks where people are going to the doctor with flu-like symptoms (respiratory illness and fever, plus a cough or sore throat). Because of that, the map “may capture patient visits due to other respiratory pathogens that cause similar symptoms,” the agency explains.
Flu season is ramping up at the same time as children’s hospitals are reeling from an onslaught of young patients with Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV. CDC tracking shows RSV cases spiking since September.
There may be some good news: COVID-19 cases have been trending downwards and leveled off in the last three weeks, the CDC’s Dr. Jose Romero sa
