By Daniel Yee
The Associated Press

ATLANTA - The nation's top health agency activated its emergency operations center to deal with the flu outbreak, which has now claimed the lives of 42 children, officials said Friday.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency sent out field teams to help states deal with the outbreak and evaluate the effectiveness of this year's flu shot.

Gerberding said it is too soon to determine how severe this flu season will be. But in response to a question, she said at a briefing that the number of cases - and the child deaths - indicate the outbreak could be classified as an epidemic. She said the season has fallen under "typical" flu patterns, but it started much earlier than usual.

The child deaths from flu are "very sobering and very worrisome," Gerberding said, adding that at least 16 of the children who died were ill prior to catching the flu and that more than half the deaths involved children under 5.

At least 36 states have been labeled by the agency as having widespread flu activity, and no state has been untouched.

The operations center was used earlier this year to help the agency manage SARS and West Nile virus activity in the United States. The worldwide SARS outbreak was the first major test of the operations center after the deadly respiratory disease was first detected in China last November.

With the flu season hitting early, many areas have reported shortages of flu shots as demand outpaced supply. But the government has worked to purchase remaining flu shot supplies for states.

Gerberding urged people not to crowd emergency rooms. The agency posted information on its Web site Friday to help people decide when they need to go to the hospital and when they should stay home.

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For more information about the flu from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, go to flu info (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly)