{"id":404949,"date":"2026-01-13T17:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404949\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T17:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:48:13","slug":"colorado-ranks-among-the-highest-states-in-the-country-for-flu-an-emergency-room-physician-describes-why-the-2025-26-flu-season-is-hitting-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/404949\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado ranks among the highest states in the country for flu \u2013 an emergency room physician describes why the 2025-26 flu season is hitting hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colorado is in the midst of a record-breaking flu season. In the week ending Dec. 27, 2025, 831 people were hospitalized<\/a> with influenza \u2013 the most since the state started tracking flu cases two decades ago<\/a>. Hospitalizations eased the following week to 737<\/a> but still remain higher than prior years.<\/p>\n

Colorado is among the top five states with the most flu activity in the country<\/a>, with doctor\u2019s visits for flu-like illness at a 30-year record high<\/a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s weekly influenza surveillance report<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m an emergency medicine and critical care physician<\/a> at the University of Colorado. In my 18 years of practicing clinical medicine, this year is one of the worst I have seen. Our emergency department hit a record number of single-day total visits over the holidays, and visit volumes have stayed high. Flu is likely contributing to this trend.<\/p>\n

While there is always a season where respiratory viruses hit hard, this year influenza is making patients miserable and wreaking havoc on both the state and national health care system. <\/p>\n

How does this year\u2019s \u2018super flu\u2019 differ from other flu seasons?<\/p>\n

This season is especially rough<\/a> because of the volume of people seeking emergency care. This flu came on fast and seems to be very contagious, and its symptoms are more severe than other recent years\u2019 flu strains. <\/p>\n

Flu tends to cause fever, body aches and maybe a cough. But this so-called super flu has also caused vomiting and diarrhea, which has made people feel much worse than isolated respiratory symptoms alone. When people are feeling worse, they seek emergency care, which is part of why our emergency department is seeing so many people. <\/p>\n

In past flu seasons, which typically run from October through February, emergency rooms were full because they were facing multiple outbreaks, such as the 2022 \u201ctripledemic\u201d of COVID-19, flu and RSV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this 2025-26 flu season, we\u2019re seeing high emergency department visits specifically from the flu. The first group of patients we\u2019re seeing are healthy people who are feeling worse with this flu, which comes with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and come to the emergency department looking for symptomatic relief. <\/p>\n

The second group are those with severe manifestations of the flu or who have underlying comorbidities such as asthma or heart disease that can be exacerbated by influenza. This is a population that may require oxygen, or they\u2019re a transplant patient and they\u2019re requiring hospitalization. <\/p>\n

This double whammy of people feeling really miserable from their symptoms plus people with comorbidities experiencing complications is when you really see a strain on the health care system. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The CDC ranks Colorado\u2019s flu activity among the highest in the U.S., along with Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Are any age groups being hit harder than others?<\/p>\n

The U.S. is seeing the highest number of visits to emergency departments<\/a> in children ages 5 to 17. <\/p>\n

Kids generally seem to be having milder flu cases than adults, which is typical for some of these viruses. But there have been 17 pediatric deaths associated with influenza<\/a> across the U.S., with eight in the week ending January 3. That number of deaths in children is not typical at this point in the season. <\/p>\n

Young people in their 20s are feeling pretty bad from this year\u2019s flu, but we\u2019re not seeing a lot of complications or hospitalizations in this group across the U.S. and in emergency departments in Colorado. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re seeing a lot of people who have underlying conditions, such as asthma, as well as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and those who are immune-compromised. They get the flu, and then it leads to kind of a cascade, or a worsening of their underlying medical problems. This is different from what we saw with COVID-19, where healthy people got very, very sick from COVID-19<\/a> itself. <\/p>\n

The older you get, the more likely<\/a> you are to experience complications, such as needing oxygen, which typically requires hospitalization.<\/p>\n

Are you still encouraging people to get the flu shot if they haven\u2019t yet?<\/p>\n

Yes, you should still consider getting your flu shot, especially if you have medical problems. <\/p>\n

Getting an annual, updated flu shot<\/a> helps with severity of diseases, even if it doesn\u2019t provide total protection<\/a>. Especially if you have underlying conditions, it\u2019s important to do everything you can to decrease symptom severity, duration and risk of hospitalization<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Getting the flu shot reduces the risk of severe illness and hospitalization, especially for people who are older or have other medical conditions.
\n Genaro Molina\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

When should you consider going to an emergency room?<\/p>\n

Anytime breathing becomes difficult, or you experience severe chest pain or headaches that are abnormal, that\u2019s something that we want you to seek medical care for right away. And of course, if somebody\u2019s worried about a symptom, we\u2019re here 365 days a year, and we\u2019re happy to help. <\/p>\n

If you are feeling bad \u2013 such as a mild headache, body aches, fever, sometimes some cough and congestion, and as I mentioned with this flu, potentially vomiting and diarrhea \u2013 that is very normal.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s flu, COVID-19 or RSV in a healthy, mildly symptomatic patient, it doesn\u2019t really matter what they have, because there\u2019s not a specific treatment. There\u2019s not anything that we can do that\u2019s going to make them better, other than \u201ctincture of time,\u201d meaning lots of rest.<\/p>\n

If you have underlying medical problems, such as diabetes, lung problems or are immune-compromised, and you are experiencing severe symptoms, you should at the very least see your primary care doctor if not the emergency department. <\/p>\n

Is it important to get tested for the sake of knowing what you have?<\/p>\n

A lot of patients want to know what virus they have, but if you\u2019re young and healthy, there\u2019s not really a need for testing other than surveillance.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s infectious disease trackers say wastewater surveillance is the No. 1 way to figure out what infectious diseases are in the community. We can\u2019t get a comprehensive sample through hospitals and clinics<\/a>, because there are so many people who are home, don\u2019t get tested and do not seek health care. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

In Colorado and other states, wastewater is tested for infectious pathogens, including influenza, COVID-19 and RSV. This testing indicates the prevalence of a virus in a given community.
\n Portland Press Herald\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Right now, wastewater samples in Colorado are testing extraordinarily high<\/a> for the flu and pretty low for RSV and COVID-19. Wastewater is a very reliable test<\/a> because everybody produces wastewater.<\/p>\n

In addition, it\u2019s important for the overall health care system that laboratory testing be used judiciously. Testing does help us understand what\u2019s in the community. But from a hospital and emergency department lens, the more tests we send to the lab that have to be run, the more testing services for other illnesses get backed up. It also adds a burden to nursing and other clinical staff, as well as costs for the patient and hospital. <\/p>\n

But if a patient is sick with manageable symptoms from a virus, it\u2019s the same standard advice: Stay at home, wash your hands and consider a mask if you have to go out in public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado is in the midst of a record-breaking flu season. In the week ending Dec. 27, 2025, 831…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-404949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}