4.6M Americans sickened with flu so far this winter, CDC says

Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Need ideas for New Year's resolutions? Here's one: Get a flu shot, if you haven't done so already.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest FluView report, released Friday, estimates that 4.6 million Americans have been sickened with the flu so far this season, a significant number given that the peak period typically starts in January. Some 39,000 have been hospitalized with the virus, and 2,100 people have died from it.

In all, during the week ending Dec. 21, 5.7 percent of all deaths across the country were caused by either pneumonia or influenza, up from 5.5 percent the previous week. In addition, 22 children have died from flu-related causes so far this season.

Although the numbers have not yet met the agency's threshold for an epidemic, officials are urging those who haven't yet done so to get the flu shot.

In the week ending Dec. 21, the number of jurisdictions reporting "high" flu activity across the country rose from 21 to 28, with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and New York City joining the current list of 25 states -- Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

In addition, six states -- California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia -- reported "moderate" flu activity.

To date, just 32 percent of all laboratory-confirmed cases in the United States have tested positive for influenza A, which is generally considered the more dangerous subtype. The opposite has been the case in Europe, however, where some 70 percent of all confirmed cases this season have involved influenza A.