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This year’s flu season is now more intense than any since the 2009 swine flu pandemic and still getting worse, federal health officials said on Friday. Nationally, the number of people falling ill with flu is increasing. More worrying, the hospitalization rate — a predictor of the death rate — has just jumped. It is now on track to equal or surpass that of the 2014-2015 flu season. In that year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, 34 million Americans got the flu, 710,000 were hospitalized and about 56,000 died. (McNeil, 1/26)

Sick with the flu? You’ve got a lot of company. The flu blanketed the U.S. again last week for the third straight week. Only Hawaii has been spared. The government doesn’t track every flu case but comes up with estimates. One measure is how many people seek medical care. Last week, 1 in 15 doctor visits were for symptoms of the flu. That’s the highest level since the swine flu pandemic in 2009. (Stobbe, 1/26)

What's more, flu activity has stayed at the same level nationwide for about three weeks, said Dr. Dan Jernigan, the director of the CDC’s Influenza Division. That sets it apart from many flu seasons, in which activity wanes in certain parts of the U.S. "We often see different parts of the country 'light up' at different times, but for the past 3 weeks, the entire country has been experiencing lots of flu, all at the same time," he said. (Greenwood, 1/27)

The toll on children has been especially severe. CDC officials said the pediatric death count is likely to approach, if not exceed, the 148 deaths reported during the especially severe flu season of 2014 and 2015. That season ended with 56,000 flu-related deaths, 710,000 people hospitalized and 16 million who sought care from a clinician or hospital. This year’s intensity has been driven by a particularly nasty strain of the virus known as H3N2. Another strain has also begun showing up, hitting baby boomers especially hard, CDC officials said Friday, although experts have not figured out exactly why. (Sun and Wan, 1/26)

After an early start, the country is about nine weeks into this nasty flu season and could be only about halfway through, Jernigan says. As a result, the percentage of people seeking medical treatment for the flu and the rates at which they are ending up in the hospital and dying are still rising. The flu is hitting the 65-and-over age group hardest, but the next-hardest hit is the 50-to-64 age group. Usually, children are the second-hardest hit. (Grayson and Stein, 1/26)

The season is shaping up to be similar to the epidemic of late 2014 and early 2015, which entailed 710,000 hospitalizations and 56,000 deaths, according to the CDC. The agency is expecting similar numbers this year, Jernigan said. (Cortez, 1/26)

Marian Smith somehow missed getting a flu shot this year, which is unlike her — in the past, she always got one. The 58-year-old Washington D.C. resident says it was easier to remember to get it when the vaccine was provided at a clinic at work. But now the clinic is a bus ride away, and getting the shot wasn't at the top of her mind. (Neighmond, 1/29)

As World War I raged in Europe, an even deadlier killer was on the loose — influenza. During 1918, up to 50 million people died during the worst flu pandemic the world has ever seen. About 675,000 perished in the United States alone — far more than the number of Americans who died in World War I. You can experience those terrifying days through “The Deadly Virus,” an online exhibition from the National Archives and Records Administration. (Blakemore, 1/27)

The number of flu-related deaths across Washington state this season reached 109 last week, up from 29 earlier this month, according to tallies by the state Department of Health. This season’s fatalities, according to a report released Friday, are seemingly on track with last year’s rate at this time. The country, meanwhile, is grappling with what is on track to be the worst flu season in nearly a decade, with people seeking care at a rate rivaling the 2009 swine flu pandemic. (Lee, 1/26)

Flu activity has spiked across Florida, slamming doctors’ offices and ERs with sick patients, and depleting supplies of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, particularly in liquid form for children, at some local pharmacies. ...Flu activity had a sharp rise in all Florida counties and among all age groups during the third week of the year, leading to closure of the entire school district in Gulf County in Florida’s Panhandle and the death of a 12-year-old boy in Palm Beach this week. (Miller, 1/28)

Dr. Mary Beth Saunders of Lee Health said that kind of adverse reaction to the influenza medicine is rare — about 1 percent of patients who take Tamiflu might have a reaction, and it’s very difficult for physicians to predict, WBBH NBC2 reported. At the hospital, even the doctors weren’t sure how to handle the rare reaction. (Cohen, 1/27)

The number of Californians younger than 65 who have died from the flu during this flu season jumped again in the latest reporting period and now totals 97, according to figures released Friday by state public health officials. The latest number represents a spike of 23 in addition to the 74 deaths announced by the state last week — in the same age group — and an increase of four in the Greater Bay Area. (Seipel, 1/26)

The number of flu-related deaths in Georgia has more than doubled, climbing to 25 from 12, state health officials reported late Friday. The Department of Public Health also said there were 115 hospitalizations in the metro Atlanta area due to influenza infection during the week of Jan. 14 through Jan. 20. (Miller, 1/26)