New Hampshire is seeing a sharp rise in influenza activity this winter, and Dartmouth is reporting a growing number of student cases, according to campus and public health officials. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently classifying New Hampshire at a “very high” risk level for flu activity.
The increase matters locally because a fast-moving respiratory season can disrupt classes and campus life while adding pressure to regional health care services. Dartmouth Health and Dick’s House have urged students to take precautions as influenza spreads across the state and Upper Valley.
Between Jan. 5 and Jan. 15, Dick’s House identified about 46 positive flu cases among students, according to Dick’s House director of nursing Lauri Gallimore. Gallimore said the figure is high compared with recent years, noting that during the 2024-25 academic year, Dick’s House recorded 58 cases over the entire month of January. Gallimore said this year’s pace suggests Dartmouth will surpass that total well before the end of the month.
Geisel School of Medicine professor Gabriela Andujar Vazquez, an infectious disease specialist, said flu cases began rising sharply statewide in mid-December. “In one to two weeks, we saw an exponential increase in both influenza-like illness visits and lab-confirmed flu cases,” Andujar Vazquez said. “We’re seeing such high levels of infections, and so quickly … the state was basically overwhelmed with flu.”
Nationally, the CDC has reported that doctor visits for flu-like symptoms have reached the highest level in nearly 30 years. For the week ending Dec. 27, 2025, nearly one in 10 outpatient visits were for flu-like illnesses, the highest rate recorded since 1997, according to CBS News.
Andujar Vazquez said this season has been “predominated” by an “Influenza A (H3N2) strain” called Subclade K. She said the strain “has accumulated a significant number of point mutations,” which can be associated with a sharper rise in cases because it spreads more efficiently.
While officials described many symptoms as consistent with typical influenza, Gallimore said even routine cases can be highly disruptive in a residential college environment. “I hear students say, ‘I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck,’” Gallimore said. “Even if it’s not severe, it can take students out of class for days.”
Gallimore said college campuses can be particularly vulnerable to transmission because of close living quarters, shared dining spaces and crowded classrooms. “You’re talking about droplet transmission,” she said. “If you have students sitting 10 to a table in the dining hall or living in dorms, that naturally increases the chance of spread.”
At Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and across the Dartmouth Health system, the increase in respiratory illness is beginning to strain resources, according to Andujar Vazquez. She said the system is maintaining capacity, but that the season places pressure on emergency departments, urgent care centers and staffing. “When respiratory season hits, it’s not just about beds,” Andujar Vazquez said. “It’s staffing capacity, emergency departments, urgent care, the places where people seek care first. Even a moderate season creates constraints, and this season isn’t moderate.”
Gallimore said vaccination remains a key part of preventing serious illness. She said “most people who are hospitalized with severe flu complications are unvaccinated,” and that vaccinated people who do get the flu generally experience less severe illness.
Public health messaging this season has also been shaped by recent national changes to flu vaccination guidance. According to NPR, in early January the CDC, under health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced an overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule that reduced the number of recommended vaccines from 17 to 11, and the flu vaccine was among those removed. Dartmouth Health rejected the new CDC guidelines in a Jan. 7 press release, according to the report.
Andujar Vazquez said it is too soon to know how the new recommendations may affect children this season, but she described broader declines in vaccination as an existing concern. “We estimated about 13 million fewer flu vaccine doses distributed this year compared to last year,” she said. “Even before those changes, we were already on a trend where people are not getting vaccinated against influenza.”
Andujar Vazquez said the flu vaccine is “by no means perfected in efficacy,” but said it still reduces the risk of severe illness or hospitalization.
In an emailed statement to The Dartmouth, Dartmouth Student Health Service director Mark Reed said flu shots are available to students on campus and at local pharmacies. “Staying home when you are sick and taking simple precautions when symptoms arise are among the most effective ways to keep our community healthy,” Reed wrote.
For students, the immediate question is how quickly cases continue to rise as the state experiences what officials described as unusually high flu activity. Dick’s House and Dartmouth Health officials have pointed to vaccination and staying home when sick as central steps for limiting spread on campus and reducing severe illness.
