Season For Sneezin' Is Here

Midori Yasuda isn't taking any chances. She scheduled a late-season shot just to avoid the flu that landed both of her roommates in bed for a week, CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports.

"Stuffy nose, headaches, dizziness . . . It was just everything and it was awful seeing them every day. I didn't want to have to go through it myself," she said.

The Centers for Disease Control report that overall, the flu season is just taking hold.

"We've seen activity start to pick up over the last few weeks and I expect that activity will probably continue to pick up for at least the next couple of weeks," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda of the CDC.

As of mid-January, 34 states reported mild flu activity, 11 more cited moderate outbreaks, and three states - Arizona, Georgia and New York - said the flu was widespread.

"It's certainly the worst I've seen in New York," said Dr. Stuart Lewis of New York University Medical Center.

Lewis said he's been inundated with flu patients.

"It seems to me that I'm either getting busier or the flu season is getting worse, but definitely this year is much worse than last year," he said.

And it's spreading North to Boston, where cases are on the rise.

"In the Northeast, where it's a bit colder than in other parts of the country, we tend to cluster inside and spread viral disease more effectively," said Dr. Christine Hay of Massachusetts General Hospital.

Doctors say they expect the flu's spread to get worse before it gets better, but they add the current flu shot should cover most of the known strains out there and it's still not too late to get one.

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