Boston declares public health emergency for flu outbreak

Mayor Thomas Menino (D) declared a public health emergency for Boston on Wednesday in response to a growing flu outbreak.

The common winter illness has killed 18 people in Massachusetts and sickened 700 in Boston this season — 10 times the number of cases that hit the city last season.

Officials warned that flu season arrived nearly five weeks early and hit the Eastern United States particularly hard. 

As of the last week in December, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 41 states are experiencing "widespread geographic influenza activity," a sharp increase from the week before.

The share of people seeing doctors for flu-like symptoms recently hit 5.6 percent nationally, more than double the peak proportion from last year, the CDC said.

Residents of Boston can receive free flu vaccines at city health centers.

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