Texas Seasonal Flu 2024-26

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Media
December 17, 2024
El Paso reports first flu-related death of the season

EL PASO, Texas — El Paso’s Department of Public Health on Monday reported the city’s first flu-related death of the season.

Excerpts:

What You Need To Know

• El Paso officials on Monday reported a 13-year-old girl with underlying health conditions died from complications caused by the flu
• The city has seen a significant uptick in cases of the flu
• According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu is a respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses
• The most important preventative measure is to get a flu shot, the CDC said

-snip-

El Paso’s DPH offers free flu vaccines to residents on a walk-in basis Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They are available at the following locations:

• Ysleta Community Clinic: 110 Candelaria St.
• Henderson Community Clinic: 721 S. Mesa St.
• Northeast Community Clinic: 9566 Railroad Dr.
• Westside Community Clinic: 7380 Remcon Cir.

continued: https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2...of-the-season-

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1/31/25
Flu outbreak in North Texas shutters several school districts as the virus spreads through the state

COVID, RSV and norovirus are also spreading in Texas.

A surge in flu cases is causing several North Texas school districts to shut down their campuses. Comanche ISD and Morgan ISD have both had closures this week, and Godley ISD in Johnson County reported 650 out of about 3,000 students out sick on Tuesday, according to CBS News.

The illness is so widespread in North Texas that pharmacies are running out of Tamiflu.

Dr. Julie Trivedi, an infectious disease expert at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said there has been a big increase in flu cases statewide, not just up north.

“What we are actually seeing is a similar pattern to the respiratory virus season and influenza season from last year, as far as when flu cases started to peak,” she said.

Beyond the flu, Trivedi said there are cases of COVID-19 and RSV circulating.

“And then, of course, there certainly have been norovirus outbreaks and clusters of infection throughout the state and even throughout the country,” she said. “We are seeing an increase in COVID cases, though that has seemed to have maybe leveled off a little bit.

“But the flu cases have been increasing pretty steadily since around the last week of November and then really peaking around the last week of December, maybe coming down slightly over the first week or two of January, but starting to increase again.”

Continued: https://www.texasstandard.org/storie...o%20CBS%20News.

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Entire school in Texas closes due to spread of flu, district says

1/31/25


WEST, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - School officials in Texas announced the closure of a school Wednesday due to an outbreak of flu.

The West Independent School District said the school would be closed Thursday and Friday of this week.

The district said the two-day closure is due to widespread flu and illness causing students and staff to miss days.

Classes would resume starting Monday, the district said.

Continued: https://www.live5news.com/2025/01/30...district-says/

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North Texas emergency rooms, urgent care clinics hit with flu surge


Hospitals and health clinics in the northern parts of the state are seeing a spike in influenza patients, according to CBS News. A Fort Worth children's hospital reported nearly 700 patients had been seen in its emergency department within a 24-hour span.

"Which is just an astronomical number," Dr. Stephanie Felton, attending physician at Cook Children's Medical Center, told CBS. "Every year, we obviously see the flu. This year, I will say, that we're seeing an abundance of it, as far as the numbers."

Children's Health in Dallas reported an 83% spike in flu cases last week compared to the prior week, with a total of 783 cases. Emergency rooms at Medical City Healthcare have seen a 10% increase in flu cases with a 35% positivity rate, CBS News reports.

continued: https://www.statesman.com/story/news...s/78022512007/

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Texas Health and Human Services
Texas Respiratory Virus Surveillance Report
2024-2025 Season/ 2025 MMWR Week 03
(January 12, 2025 - January 18, 2025)
Report produced on January 24, 2025





Continued: https://www.dshs.texas.gov/sites/def....1.24.2025.pdf

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Austin

information below contains data through Jan. 25, 2025:
Flu Trends in Austin-Travis County

Weekly Report

• Flu activity in Texas is very high. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that seasonal influenza activity continues to increase across the country, with the number of hospital admissions elevated.
• There have been two adult influenza-associated deaths reported in Travis County.
• Three influenza-associated outbreaks in schools or long-term care facilities have been reported this season in Travis County.

https://www.austintexas.gov/departme...fluenza-austin


Two people in Travis County die as high levels of flu hit Austin area
2/4/25

We're now deep in cold and flu season. Texas emergency departments have seen very high levels of flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Those levels have been increasing in recent weeks, up 55.36% the third week of January compared with the week before.

In Travis County, Austin Public Health is showing a sharp increase in flu-related medical visits since the start of the year. The third week of January, 9.9% of emergency room visits in Central Texas were for flu. Most flu tests, whether rapid or the PCR tests (polymerase chain reaction), are coming back with flu A and not flu B.

-snip-
We are not experiencing the triple epidemic of flu, RSV and COVID-19 that we experience in fall of 2022, when every pediatric intensive care unit and pediatric hospital beds were full because of an outbreak of all three illnesses.
continued: https://www.yahoo.com/news/two-peopl...120159973.html

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[emphasis is mine]

New flu strain mutation triggers early rise in Texas flu cases, hospitalizations

Published: Dec. 15, 2025
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A new mutation of the influenza A(H3N2) strain, known as subclade K, is causing an increase in flu cases and hospitalizations in Texas and across the country early in this year’s flu season.
-snip-

In Texas, the number of hospital/clinic visits relating to have passed 5,000 weekly cases for three weeks in a row for the weeks with an end date of Nov. 22, Nov, 29, and Dec. 6, according to Texas Health and Human Services. Compared to the same time last year, that’s more than double the number of weekly cases. In East Texas, those numbers reach around 250 hospital/clinic visits per week.

Meanwhile, the number of hospitalizations in Texas relating to influenza have begun to raise, especially for those 65 years old or older. On the week ending on Dec. 6, 7.4 people in Texas aged 65+ out of every 100,000 were hospitalized in Texas. One month ago, only 2.2 out of every 100,000 people aged 65 or older were hospitalized.

Despite the challenges presented by subclade K, the CDC recommends to get the vaccine, as it can provide “protection against severe influenza illness, hospitalization, and death” while also protecting “against other circulating influenza viruses represented in the influenza vaccines.”

... https://www.ktre.com/2025/12/15/new-...pitalizations/

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[Tarrant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas with a 2020 U.S. census population of 2,110,640, making it the third-most populous county in Texas and the 15th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Wikipedia]


Tarrant County Public Health
Division of Epidemiology and Health Information

Tarrant County Respiratory Surveillance Weekly Report
CDC Week 52: December 21 — December 27, 2025


• The 2025-2026 influenza season began on September 28, 2025 and will end on May 23, 2026.

• Reported influenza-like illness (ILI) in Tarrant County increased from 14.0% in Week 51 to 17.5%

in Week 52, and is currently above the 2025-2026 Tarrant County baseline (6.7%). In Texas during

Week 51, the proportion of outpatient visits for ILI, 6.0%, was above the state baseline (3.8%).

• Due to school closures for Holiday Break, no absenteeism information is available for Week 52.

• The percentage of flu test positives in Tarrant County increased from 19.6% in Week 51 to 26.4%

in Week 52.

• Based on data from the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-

based Epidemics (ESSENCE), patients hospitalized following ER visits who were diagnosed with

influenza was 5.4% in Week 52.

• For influenza-associated pediatric deaths, to date, Tarrant County has reported 0 cases, the state

of Texas has reported 0 cases, and the United States has reported a total of 8 cases.

• For the season, 4 influenza outbreak(s) have been reported in Tarrant County institutions.

• 27 surveillance specimens were tested in Week 52. Cumulatively this season, the Tarrant County

Public Health Laboratory has tested 369 surveillance specimens and of these, 52 have been

positive for influenza and 29 have been positive for SARS-CoV-2.

• In Week 52, influenza wastewater data was not available.

• Nationally during Week 51, 25.6% of specimens tested and reported to the CDC were positive for

influenza. The proportion of outpatient visits for ILI (6.0%) was above the national baseline (3.1%).

Based on National Center for Health Statistics mortality surveillance data, 0.5% of the deaths that

occurred during Week 51 were due to influenza.





https://www.tarrantcountytx.gov/content/dam/main/public-health/ph--epidemiology-documents/respiratory-surveillance-reports/2026-01-02_Tarrant_Co_Weekly_Respiratory_Activity_Week_52_ Dec_27.pdf