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Media stories of epidemic levels of influenza in the United States are plentiful following the release of a by the .

Is it time to panic? Not according to , professor of internal medicine at the and section chair of infectious diseases at .

Dr Kerkering said, 鈥溾�楨pidemic鈥� is hyperbole.鈥� He continued, 鈥淓pidemic means seeing more than the normal baseline for this time of the year.鈥�

In the report released 27 January, the CDC notes that 鈥渢he proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza was above the system-specific epidemic threshold鈥� used by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Influenza is currently widespread in Southwest Virginia but it is 鈥渋n the usual amounts for any given year鈥�, Kerkering said.

Confirmed cases at Carilion Clinic emergency rooms across Southwest Virginia have been steadily picking up in the last two weeks, Kerkering said, and they鈥檙e expected to continue for another two to three weeks before tapering off.

Kerkering said this year鈥檚 influenza vaccine is a good match. He encourages people to get vaccinated even if they haven鈥檛 already. 鈥淚t is not too late.鈥�

Image credit: 漏stock.adobe.com/au/Dmytro Flisak