DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News) — The new year is beginning in misery for flu victims in North Texas.
The CDC reports three dozen states are reporting large outbreaks a month before the expected peak of flu season. Texas is one of seven that have reported deaths due to the flu, six already in Dallas County alone.
NBC 5 reports the current influenza epidemic is already three times worse than last year and this year’s vaccine is only 11 percent effective.
In the past week Tarrant County emergency rooms counted nearly seven percent of visits related to flu-like symptoms.
Walgreens has ranked the Dallas-Fort Worth area eighth worst nationally based on prescription data for flu treatment medications.