US flu cases surged

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The U.S. flu season is under way, with cases surging across much of the country, health officials said Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted sharp increases in several measures, including lab tests and emergency room visits.

“It's been increasing at a pretty steady pace now for the past several weeks. So yeah, we are certainly in flu season now,” said the CDC's Alicia Budd.

Thirteen states reported high or very high levels of flu-like illness last week, about double from the week before. One is Tennessee, where a sickness spike is hitting the Nashville area, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University.

“Flu has been increasing, but just this last week has exploded,” Schaffner said. He noted that in a local clinic that serves as an indicator of illness trends, as many as a quarter of the patients have flu symptoms.