The CDC says there's a flu epidemic raging in America (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by Theresa , Monday, January 12, 2015, 10:00

It's that time again: The flu, short for influenza, is in season, and it's hitting the United States particularly hard this year.

Twenty-two states and Puerto Rico are reporting high flu activity, meaning more people are getting hospitalized, and there are more laboratory-confirmed cases of the virus. Additionally, pharmacies are reporting difficulty stocking flu medicine, especially the children's liquid flu medicine Tamiflu. That led the Centers for Disease Control to declare a flu epidemic just last week.

One of the heavily affected states is South Carolina, where the number of confirmed cases of influenza sits at 28,000 — twice as many as there were at this time last year. Twenty people have died from complications with influenza so far, and additional 500 people were hospitalized last week.

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