# Flu Season Concerns Rise as Cases surge Globally
After a rough, record-setting flu season, doctors and health officials are bracing for another wave of fever, misery and respiratory distress.
In the U.K., health officials are warning about an early rise in flu levels among children and young adults.In Japan, health officials recently declared a flu epidemic and closed schools after experiencing an unusually high number of flu cases early in the season.
What does that mean for the U.S.?
Typically, flu cases start to rise in November, along with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and enteroviruses, and peak in February. But job-cut chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the government shutdown could make it hard to know how the virus is playing out this fall,experts worry.
The CDC’s last influenza report for the U.S.was for the week ending Sept. 20, when ther was minimal activity.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, is concerned about the possibility of limited flu surveillance by the CDC, leaving the U.S.blind to the scale and scope of flu outbreaks.
“Everything from outreach campaigns to more logistical efforts to actually get vaccines out” could be affected, Rasmussen said. “That information just may not be available, so it will be very difficult to coordinate a national response,” she said.
Last year’s flu was harsh. There were about 1.1 million hospitalizations associated with the flu, the highest rate in 14 years, according to the CDC. And there were the highest number of doctor visits for flu-like illnesses in more than a decade.
An estimated 38,000 to 99,000 deaths were associated with the 2024-2025 flu season, according to a preliminary assessment by the CDC.