By Tiara Battle

SOURCES: Lynnette Brammer, M.P.H., lead, domestic influenza surveillance team, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;CBS News; NBC News

ATLANTA – Health officials have reported the flu continues to spread across the country during this flu season.

Fifteen deaths from the flu have been confirmed for the state of Georgia.

At the beginning to the season, the more prominent strain was influenza A H1N1, but now, there is a more severe strain, influenza A H3N2. This new strain accounts for almost half of all new cases according to the CDC.

The lead of the CDC’s domestic influenza surveillance team, Lynnette Brammer, stated that, “We are moving from an H1 wave to and H3 wave.”

According to the CDC, this year’s vaccine has proven to be much more effective than last year’s vaccine, having sixty-two percent effectiveness against H1N1 and forty-four percent effectiveness against H3N2. Even among kids aged six months old to seventeen years old, the effectiveness of the vaccine is sixty-one percent, as stated by the CDC.

This flu season alone has already claimed the lives of forty one children so getting them vaccinated is crucial.

The death toll among adults is high, especially for the elderly. This year alone, 22,300 adults have died from the flu and 250,000 have been hospitalized, according to Brammer.

It is much lower than last year’s numbers, but while the flu is still around, people are at risk of becoming hospitalized or worse. Brammer stresses that if one gets vaccinated and still gets the flu, it will be milder than if the shot had not been administered.

The CDC emphasizes that anyone over the age of six months should get the flu shot because as of February the 16, flu is widespread in forty-eight states.

Thirty states are experiencing high levels of the flu.

The thirty states include:

Alabama

Alaska

Arkansas

Colorado

Georgia*

Indiana

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Massachusetts

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wyoming