January 10, 2013 NEW YORK (AP) -- From the Rocky Mountains to
New England, hospitals are swamped with people with flu
symptoms. Some medical centers have limited visitors, and one
Pennsylvania hospital set up a tent outside its ER to handle the
feverish patients. Flu season in the U.S. has hit early and, in
some places, hard. But whether this will be considered a bad
season by the time it has run its course in the spring remains
to be seen. "Those of us with gray hair have seen worse," said
Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville. The evidence so far is pointing to a moderate season,
Schaffner and others believe. It just looks bad compared with
last year -- an unusually mild one. Flu usually doesn't blanket
the country until late January or February, but it is already
widespread in more than 40 states. What's probably complicating
the situation: The main influenza virus this year tends to make
people sicker. And there are other bugs out there causing flu-
like illnesses. So wh