Welcome to the age of selfie-transmitted diseases.

Yes, the flu season is really bad this year. No, it's not entirely due to "people use too much Purell nowadays" or whining about what's probably just a cold, either. The CDC reports that more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from "flu-related complications" every year. Sometimes, especially in the winter, people will use the word "flu" to describe any condition they want, but this is not the flu's fault and you should not blame it.

How bad is this year's flu season? Here's a Google map that estimates how bad the flu is across the country based on aggregated Google search data. No matter where you live in the U.S., you're facing "intense" or "high" flu activity — unless you live in Connecticut, in which case you're only looking at "moderate" activity (but you're suffering enough).

17-year-old Hawaii high school senior Ciara Cetraro is three weeks away from setting an insane record: she hasn't missed one day of school since kindergarten.

By tweaking the H5N1 bird flu virus a bit, a Netherlands-based virologist and his crew have created a highly contagious version that, if ever unleashed upon the general population, could kill millions of us. But don't fret! Their research, like that one Rolling Stones documentary, hasn't been released to the public. At least not yet, anyway.

Just shortly after declaring bean sprouts from an organic farm in Germany the cause of an E. coli outbreak in Europe that has killed 22 and sickened thousands, health officials have now backpedaled.

The Great Bed Bug Epidemic has been widely covered, but now our nation's capital is under threat from stink bugs. They smell like sweaty feet and are multiplying fast! According to a specialist, "this is going to be biblical." [WaPo]

Dog Snuggies are here.

America hasn't lost any weight in the past year, despite really meaning to, this time. Twenty-three states have actually gotten fatter. The obese-est state is Mississippi; the least obese is Colorado. Next year, skiing instead of mud pie, America. [Reuters]

Ok, Mexico, we know you're worried about the swine flu, but just take a minute here. Is "saving lives" so important that you're willing to make everyone autistic?[AFP]