Flu is spreading fast across the Louisville area, with positive tests at Norton Healthcare and Norton Children's climbing 56% in just one week, and children bearing the brunt of the surge. The jump comes as Indiana health officials confirmed the state's first flu-related death of the 2026-27 season.
Norton Healthcare and Norton Children's logged 636 positive flu tests last week alone, according to WLKY. Zoom out to the full stretch from September through the end of October, and the hospital system has recorded more than 2,200 flu cases this year, compared with just 351 during the same period last year — a staggering jump by any measure.
Children are driving most of that increase. Positive flu tests among kids rose from 155 last year to more than 1,300 this year, the station's report shows, and children accounted for the largest share of the overall spike in positive tests.
Doctor Says Flu Isn't Going Anywhere Soon
Dr. Daniel Blatt, an infectious disease specialist at Norton Children's, said flu is circulating now and is expected to stick around for the foreseeable future, per the same account. He added that more flu is being seen than in previous years, and that greater prevalence could mean more people end up seriously ill.
Blatt said he does not know exactly why cases are higher this season and described the cause as multifactorial, the outlet reported. He noted that COVID-19, RSV and common cold viruses can all produce symptoms that look a lot like the flu, which can complicate efforts to pin down exactly what is spreading through a household.
To limit the spread, Blatt recommended staying away from others when sick, washing hands, covering coughs and getting a flu shot. He also said a flu shot does not always prevent illness outright but can help keep people out of the hospital, and that he hopes few people end up hospitalized this season.
Indiana Confirms First Flu Death of the Season
Just across the river, Indiana announced its first flu-related death of the 2026-27 season, according to WNDU. The Indiana Department of Health withheld details about the person who died, citing privacy laws. Influenza killed 270 people in Indiana during the 2025-26 season, the agency said.
The state's health commissioner said influenza can quickly become a serious illness for some Hoosiers and can even be life-threatening. State health officials identify pregnant women, young children, immunocompromised people, people with certain chronic illnesses and older adults as most at risk for developing flu complications.
A Pattern Playing Out Beyond Louisville
Louisville isn't alone in seeing an unusually active flu season take hold early. A previous Norton Children's spike saw the hospital confirm nearly 1,500 flu cases among kids in a single season, the station reported at the time — the highest weekly total recorded that year. That earlier surge was tied by Norton's Heather Felton partly to kids returning to school after a snow-related break, and partly to a decline in flu vaccinations, with many confirmed patients not having received a flu shot.
WHAS11 reported during a separate spike that Norton Children's was receiving 500 positive flu tests a day, with seven patients hospitalized because of the virus at that time. The hospital had also confirmed nearly 1,500 flu cases in kids during the 2024-25 season. Nationally, the CDC reported that nearly 200 children in the U.S. died from flu during that prior season, with most of them unvaccinated, according to the same report.
The pattern extends to Cincinnati, where flu activity has also arrived earlier and heavier than usual this fall. Hoodline previously reported that Dr. Thomas LaMarre said this year's season could peak as early as November, with flu test positivity at Christ Hospital running six times the level typically seen in early October. Ohio had logged more than 150 flu hospitalizations in a two-week span, and Hamilton County saw seven or eight hospitalizations in a single week, with county hospitalization rates during the 2025-26 season running two-and-a-half times the five-year average.
