The "bad" flu season sweeping the United States has killed 26 children so far and nearly doubled hospitalizations among people over the age of 65 in the past week alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday. "It is shaping up to be a bad year for flu," CDC chief Tom Frieden said in a conference call with reporters. "H3N2 is a nastier flu virus than the other flu viruses." Frieden said that at week seven of the typical 13-week flu season, the virus "is now widespread in almost the entire country." The CDC chief said that hospitalization rates among people over 65 "are rising sharply," moving from 52 per 100,000 last week to 92 per 100,000 this week. "That is high but typical for H3N2 season," Frieden said. The last H3N2 season was in 2012-2013, and the cumulative hospitalization rate among the elderly that season was 183 per 100,000.
