Officials: Flu Now Widespread Across Most of Alabama
Officials say the flu is widespread across Alabama except for its southeastern Wiregrass Region.
News outlets cite state Public Health Department maps in Wednesday reports as showing that flu activity levels are slightly higher than usual during this time.
Flu season doesn’t peak until January, but the department’s weekly flu report shows last week’s activity was reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as widespread.
The department’s southeastern district counties and Mobile County were the only areas with no significant flu activity reported. Jefferson County had at least one lab-confirmed case within the last three weeks, while the rest of the state had significant activity.
Dr. Cathy Wood in Montgomery says many times children are how the virus spreads. The CDC says everyone six months or older should get the flu vaccine.
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The CDC Weekly Flu Report shows three states with very widespread flu activity—California, Massachusetts and our neighbor to the East…Georgia.
The influenza activity reported by state and territorial epidemiologists indicates geographic spread of influenza viruses, but does not measure the severity of influenza activity. Additional data displaying the influenza activity reported by state and territorial epidemiologists for the current and past seasons are available on FluView Interactive at https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/FluView8.html
During week 49, the following influenza activity was reported:
- Widespread influenza activity was reported by three states (California, Georgia, and Massachusetts).
- Regional influenza activity was reported by 10 states (Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Kentucky, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont).
- Local influenza activity was reported by 21 states (Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah).
- Sporadic influenza activity was reported by the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 16 states (Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming).
- Guam did not report.
