Flu test positivity rates at Christ Hospital are running six times higher than normal for early October. Hamilton County residents are already landing in the ICU.

Dr. Thomas Lamarre, medical director of infectious diseases for The Christ Hospital Health Network, said the virus arrived weeks ahead of schedule. He told WLWT that more than 150 people were hospitalized across Ohio in two weeks. Seven or eight of those hospitalizations happened in Hamilton County in a single week, with several patients admitted to intensive care.

Montgomery, Blue Ash and Sycamore Township all sit within Hamilton County, putting local residents squarely in the path of the early surge.

"Unfortunately, flu has arrived earlier than usual this year," Lamarre said.

Peak flu season typically falls in January or February. Lamarre said the peak could arrive as early as November. The flu shot takes about two weeks to become effective, and Lamarre urged residents to get vaccinated before Halloween.

Lamarre said vaccination rates remain lower than doctors want to see. WLWT reported that the 2024–2025 flu season carried the highest flu death rate the country had seen in five years and the lowest vaccination rates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified the 2024–2025 season as high severity, the first since 2017–2018. The agency estimated 51 million flu-related illnesses, 710,000 hospitalizations and 45,000 deaths nationwide. Adults 65 and older accounted for 57% of hospitalizations and 71% of deaths.

This year's vaccine has been completely reformulated to target H3N2, the variant that dominated last season. Lamarre said the previous formula was not a good match for that strain, though it still reduced hospitalizations by almost 40%. Early data on the new formula looks promising.

"The data is of course preliminary, but it looks like there's a very good match so far," Lamarre said.

The shot is widely available. Lamarre's message was simple: don't wait.

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