Flu Activity Reports

While everyone at high risk scrambled to find flu shots, it is fortunate that this year's flu season did not get off to the early start like it did last year.

In December and early January, the CDC was still reporting low flu activity levels in most areas of the United States. In contrast, there was already much more flu activity at that time last year.

The flu bug became more widespread and peaked in most areas of the country in February and continues to decline in March. There are still many states reporting widespread flu activity though, including Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.

However, many more states are now reporting lower regional or local activity. This decrease in flu activity means that we are finally moving out of this year's flu season.

Flu Virus Strains

This year's flu shot contains the following flu antigens:

• A/Fujian/411/2002 (H3N2) - like
• A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1) - like
• B/Shanghai/361/2002 - like

The good news is that those seem to be a good match so far for the strains of flu being detected in the United States. With a good match, that should mean that the flu vaccine will better protect those that are able to get immunized. Unvaccinated people may get some protection from the fact that those who are vaccinated won't get infected and spread the flu to others.

For more information:

• Flu Activity Reports
• Current US Weekly Flu Report
• Current US Map of Flu Activity
• Flu Season Update
• Flu Resources and Alerts