CDC Highest Number of Flu Cases in 15 Years. Here’s How to Protect Yourself

The CDC reports the highest level of flu cases since the swine flu pandemic of 2009.

For the first time, the death rate for flu cases is higher than the mortality rate for COVID-19.

Everyone can do their part to stop the spread of flu by getting vaccinated and staying home if you’re sick.

The number of flu cases in the United States is currently at its highest level in 15 years.

In addition, more people are dying from influenza than from COVID-19 for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportsTrusted Source that “seasonal influenza activity remains elevated and continues to increase across the country.”

CDC officials say flu levels remain “very high” or “high” in the majority of states.

More than 48,000 people in the U.S. were admitted to hospitals with influenza during the week that ended on February 1. That’s the highest level since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009.

The CDC reports that nearly 8% of visits to a healthcare professional that week were for respiratory illnesses, a trend that continues upward.

Lab data collected by the CDC shows that 31% of tests collected in a week were positive for influenza, significantly higher than the 18% recorded during the peak flu season last year.

In addition, the CDC states that 2% of deaths nationwide were attributed to influenza. That’s higher than the 1.5% attributed to COVID-19.

Overall, the CDC estimates there have been 24 million illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations, and 13,000 deaths from the flu this season this year.

How bad is this year’s flu season?

Experts say this flu season has been rough, although not necessarily record breaking.

“We are in the midst of a severe influenza season right now,” William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease expert and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, told Healthline. “Across the country, doctors’ offices, emergency departments and hospitals are chock full of patients with fever who are coughing and feeling miserable.”

“Flu seasons vary in severity from year to year. Sometimes more severe seasons are triggered by the appearance of a new influenza strain. That is not apparent this year. Exactly why this season is so severe is not known,” Schaffner said.

Yvonne Maldonado, MD, a professor of global health and infectious diseases at Stanford University, agreed this year’s flu season has been a bit of a mystery.

“It’s hard to predict what each season’s flu pattern will look like,” she told Healthline. “We don’t have a way of predicting except to track what happens in the southern hemisphereTrusted Source in their flu season, which generally runs from April through September. In 2024, however, the southern hemisphere did not exhibit the same pattern that we are seeing in the U.S.”

Timothy Brewer, MD, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles and of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said that during the 2009–2010 swine flu epidemic, there were an estimated 60 million flu cases in the U.S.

There were also more than 274,000 hospitalizations and nearly 12,500 associated deaths. “This year has been a bad flu year, but it’s not out of bounds,” Brewer told Healthline.

Brewer added that almost all of the flu cases this season are influenza A with variants H1N1Trusted Source and H3N2, strains that have been circulating for years. He said the H3N2 variant tends to have a higher mortality rate, which may explain the relatively high number of deaths this season.

Inderpal Randhawa, MD, an internist, immunologist, pediatrician, pediatric pulmonologist, and medical director of the Children’s Pulmonary Institute at MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach in California, said there may be other factors for the higher mortality rate this season.

Randhawa told Healthline that his practice is seeing a high number of flu patients who also have another virus, such as:

respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)

rhinovirus

human metapneumovirusTrusted Source

“In these patients, the immune system is being overwhelmed by the back-to-back viruses,” Randhawa said.

Randhawa added that another factor is this season’s flu strain seems to bring on strong symptoms quickly, causing some patients to be diagnosed and treated when the virus is already well entrenched. “If this hits you like a ton of bricks, don’t delay. Assume it’s the flu,” he advised.

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