The flu is spreading fiercely across the United States, with
more than 40 states reporting widespread activity in what one of
the nation's leading health officials is calling an epidemic.
"If you look at the charts that the (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention) put out on their website, it clearly has gone
above that threshold. So we are into what would classically be
described as a flu epidemic," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the
National Institutes of Health, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on
Thursday. "It's still on the uptick," Fauci added. The season
has started earlier, and cases are more severe than last year,
health officials say. The latest Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention flu advisory report, which covers the week of
December 23 to 29, suggests that 41 states have widespread
influenza activity, which was an increase of 31 states from the
previous week. The CDC will issue an update on the flu situation
Friday. There have so far b