ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Last year in Missouri, the official count of those hit by the flu totaled just more than 20,000.

Of course those numbers are always low because not everyone goes to the doctor when they have the flu.

This year already, the total is just more than 13,000.  That with the peak weeks still to come.

Last year St. Louis County Health Department reported just less than 1500 official flu cases for the entire season, ending in April.  This week, St. Louis County just passed last year’s total with at least three more months to go.

“One thing we are seeing now is an increase in A strains” says Infectious Disease Specialist at St. Louis University School of Medicine Doctor Donald Kennedy.

The A strain is not in great numbers at the present time said Kennedy: but, “it’s probably going to be in great numbers over the next few weeks.”

Doctor Kennedy says the reasons for the severity of the flu this year is due to the changing of the virus and because last year the flu was almost non existent,  people did not built up immunity.