There are now a total of 47 reported illnesses, including 10 hospitalizations, in 22 states, including Illinois. 

According to CDC estimates, since the beginning of October, there have been at least 10 million illnesses, 110,000 hospitalizations, and 6,500 deaths from flu so far this season. The agency said 27 children have died of flu.

High levels of flu-like illnesses were reported last week in 17 states — up from 14 the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

About 7 million fewer adults have gotten their flu shot so far this season compared with the last virus season. Vaccination coverage for COVID-19 is also low, with just 17% of adults and about 8% of children getting the latest shot, according to CDC data through Dec. 2.

Doctors have not been able to pin down a cause, although research suggests it is a body’s prolonged overreaction to an infection or other jolt to the immune system.

While the public health emergency is officially over, COVID-19 is still making people sick, and health officials say they’ve entered a new front.

Three cases were reported in both California and Florida, with other cases reported in Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.

More parents are questioning routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, an effect of the political schism that emerged during the pandemic around COVID-19 vaccines, experts say.

U.S. public health officials are calling for urgent action to curb an alarming increase in the number of babies born with syphilis. In infants, syphilis can be a severe, disabling and sometimes life-threatening infection.

Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said manufacturers, who are making the immunization for the first time, underestimated demand.

The endorsement from the CDC and the committee means the vaccines will be covered by public and private insurance plans. The new vaccines have been updated to fend off the currently circulating viruses that cause COVID-19.

Illicitly manufactured fentanyl was involved in nearly all overdose deaths with evidence of counterfeit pills use, including more than two out of five deaths that were exclusively caused by it, CDC researchers found.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to give its nod to the updated vaccines in a few weeks. The announcement comes amid a late summer uptick in COVID-19.

Of the 12 total cases of West Nile virus the state health department has seen so far this year, seven of those cases were reported in Cook County, including two in Chicago.

A 3-year-old migrant girl who was on a Texas-sponsored bus to Chicago died last week, prompting investigations by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies, authorities said.

An infection with RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most healthy people, but it can be life-threatening for the very young and the elderly. There are no vaccines for babies, so the new drug is expected to fill a critical need.