Flu Is Rising Early on the West Coast, and Nearly All Subtyped Viruses Are H1N1. Check Your Antiviral and Vaccination Plans Now.
CDC's latest FluView, for the week ending Oct. 3, shows 3.6 percent of lab specimens positive and 3,334 flu admissions, with the highest activity on the West Coast. Outpatient illness is still below baseline.
Seasonal influenza activity is rising, and it is highest on the West Coast. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's FluView report for the week ending Oct. 3, published Oct. 9, says activity is "increasing in many parts of the country but remains low."
For practices, the useful question is not whether a surge has arrived. By the CDC's outpatient measures, it has not. The question is whether vaccination and antiviral workflows are ready before it does.
What the surveillance shows
Of 39,317 clinical laboratory specimens tested that week, 1,435 (3.6 percent) were positive for influenza, and 97 percent of positives were influenza A. Positivity ranged from 1.7 percent in HHS Region 2 to 9.5 percent in Region 9, the HHS region that includes California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. It rose in seven of the 10 regions.
Public health laboratories subtyped 127 influenza A viruses. Of those, 125 were A(H1N1)pdm09 and two were A(H3N2). Since Week 21, the CDC reports, 80.5 percent of subtyped influenza A viruses have been H1N1, mostly in the D.3.1.1 subclade. No new human infections with a novel influenza A virus were reported.
Outpatient illness is still under baseline, but hospital admissions are already rising. Plan for the second signal, not the first.
Where it is showing up first
Outpatient influenza-like illness was 1.8 percent of visits nationally, below the 3.1 percent baseline, and every HHS region was under its own baseline. The CDC notes that this measure has been rising slowly since late August or early September, and that respiratory illness visits rose among patients aged 0 to 4 and 5 to 24. Influenza accounted for 0.6 percent of emergency department visits.
Hospital data moved more. The National Healthcare Safety Network counted 3,334 laboratory-confirmed influenza admissions, a national rate of 1.0 per 100,000, up from the prior week. Rates were highest among adults 65 and older (3.3 per 100,000), and they rose in that group and in children 0 to 4 (0.8). Region 10, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska, had the highest regional admission rate at 1.4. The CDC also reported three more pediatric deaths for the 2025-2026 season, bringing that season's total to 198.
What the CDC advises
The CDC recommends annual influenza vaccination for everyone 6 months and older, ideally before the end of October. It also says prescription antivirals can treat influenza and should be started as early as possible, particularly in people at higher risk of complications.
These are single-week, early-season numbers, and they can be revised. They say nothing about how severe this season will be, and the report does not assess how well the vaccine matches the circulating H1N1 viruses.
What practices should do now
Confirm that vaccine stock and standing orders cover the older adults and young children whose admission rates are already climbing. Decide in advance who in the practice can prescribe antivirals the same day for higher-risk patients, so a Monday phone call does not become a Thursday start. Practices on the West Coast should treat the regional signal as an early warning; those elsewhere can watch the next FluView for the same pattern.
Many of the same older patients are choosing 2027 coverage this month. See our note on the questions Medicare open enrollment will bring to your front desk.
Reported, fact-checked and edited by The Script Pad's editorial staff.
This article is for professional education and does not replace clinical judgment. Treatment decisions should be based on the individual patient and current guidelines.
