The flu season may finally be picking up steam after the slowest
start in nearly three decades, a new government report suggests.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an uptick
in the number of samples testing positive for the virus -- 10.5
percent in the first week of February versus 7.6 percent the
week before. That suggests that the flu season is just off to a
late start, CDC researchers say. Interestingly, it’s only the
second time in 29 years that the percentage of respiratory
samples testing positive remained under 10 percent through
January. "The peak of flu cases most commonly occurs in January
or February, but the timing can vary significantly year to
year," says Dr Otto Yang, professor of medicine, division of
infectious diseases, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at
the University of California, Los Angeles. Flu season generally
hits as early as October and can continue as late as May. "It's
difficult to predict if this will overall be lower than other
years, because we have