Linda Howard gets her flu shot from nursing student Elizabeth
Wallace at the annual Free Flu Shot on Oct. 27 at Farragut
Intermediate School in Knoxville, Tenn. / Michael Patrick, AP
This year's flu season is starting earlier and hitting harder
than it has in almost a decade, officials at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said. "This is at least a month
earlier than we would generally see the beginning of the uptick
in cases," said CDC director Thomas Frieden. The flu strains
circulating in the United States this year, especially the N3N2
strain, tend to cause more severe disease as well, he said. The
good news is that this year's flu vaccine is a 90% match for the
circulating strains. "So we're particularly encouraging people
who haven't been vaccinated to do it," he said. One of the
signals CDC uses to indicate the official start of flu season is
when more than 2.2% of all visits to the doctor nationwide are
for flu-like illnesses. In non-flu months such as the summer,
about 1% of doctor visits