By Emma Patten-Hitt, PhD

ATLANTA, Mar 23 (Reuters Health) - It may be time to put away the winter clothes and throw out this year's flu medications--flu season is all but over, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.

"The activity has declined dramatically over the last couple of weeks," Alicia Postema, with the CDC, told Reuters Health. "We will continue (gathering information) through the end of May, and we are still seeing some activity but substantially less than what we were seeing at the peak--near the end of January," she said.

For the week ending March 10, one state (Rhode Island) reported widespread cases, 12 states (Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, and South Dakota) reported isolated outbreaks of flu, 35 states reported sporadic cases and Illinois reported no cases at all to the federal agency, CDC researchers note.

According to the CDC, influenza activity peaked this year during the week ending January 27, when 24% of samples tested by health officials were positive for influenza. This peak percentage was lower than that of the previous three seasons, which had percentages that ranged from 28% to 32% of samples tested.

Overall, activity for the 2000-2001 flu season has been somewhat tame, and the CDC describes this season as "moderate and lower than the previous three seasons." Postema attributes this to the fact that the predominant strain circulating this season tends to cause less severe illness than the strain circulating during the previous three seasons. She also points out that the flu vaccine for this year was well matched to the circulating flu strains.

Despite the season's mildness, people have still died because of influenza and its complications, such as pneumonia. For the week ending March 10, about 8% of recorded deaths in 122 cities were due to influenza and pneumonia. But "this percentage was below the epidemic threshold of 8.7% for this week...(and has) remained below the epidemic threshold each week since October 1," CDC researchers write in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for March 23.

Although the flu season has been relatively mild this year, the CDC cannot predict what the season will be like next year. "It really isn't possible to predict what the flu season will be like next year because the flu is so variable," Postema said.

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