| They are the familiar
sights and sounds of winter: the sniffling nose, the dry, throaty voice
and the grimace as the medicine goes down. Better get used to them, health
officials say. The flu, which struck the West hard last month, has arrived
like a storm along the East Coast, filling hospital waiting rooms and doctors'
offices with ailing patients.
Patients at emergency rooms nationwide have lined
the halls on gurneys, waiting for rooms. Others huddle around rows of
chairs waiting to be seen by a doctor. Other hospitals across the country
are scrambling to add extra staff, while others are even turning people
away due to overcrowding. The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention show that more than 99 percent of the cases reported
so far are influenza type A. Most of the cases, officials say, appear
to be the Sydney strain of the virus, which also struck last year.
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