Flu season ramps up with 44 states reporting high activity - Crain's Detroit Business

That's as high as the peak of the 2017-18 flu season and higher than any season since.

The annual winter flu season usually doesn't get going until December or January, but this one began early and has been complicated by the simultaneous spread of other viruses.

Meanwhile, 44 states reported high or very high flu activity last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

The dominant flu strain so far is the kind typically associated with higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths, particularly in people 65 and older.

The CDC estimates there have been at least 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths from flu so far this season.