00:57 Young and Fit But Still Died From Flu A 21-year-old man who prided himself on fitness died from the flu after not taking it seriously. Now his family is sharing his story as a warning.

At a Glance California hospitals have been overwhelmed with flu patients this year.

At least 42 people younger than 65 have died in the state.

Some hospitals have set up tents to triage the ill.

The flu epidemic that has hit the entire nation has been particularly brutal in California, where the situation at area hospitals is being charazterized as a "flu war zone."

According to the Los Angeles Times, hospitals are so overwhelmed by the influx of flu patients that they have been forced to fly in nurses from out of state and are turning away ambulances. Some have set up tents in parking lots to triage the inordinate numbers of flu patients coming for care, while scheduled, voluntary surgeries are being postponed to free up resources.

“Those are all creative things we wouldn’t typically do, but in a crisis like this, we’re looking at,” Michelle Gunnett, a nurse who oversees emergency services for a Southern California hospital system, told the Times.

When Candysse Miller of Redlands, California, took her 88-year-old father to a nearby emergency room on Jan. 6, the standing-room-only facility was filled with visibly ill people sneezing and coughing.

“It was like a flu war zone,” Miller told the Times. “I’m not a germophobe or anything, but that will quickly make you one.”

Dr. James McKinnell, an infectious disease specialist at Torrance Memorial Medical Center, said some of the patients are very ill, many sick with multiple strains of the flu, others with the flu and pneumonia.

“There’s a little bit of a feeling of being in the trenches. we’re really battling these infections to try to get them under control,” McKinnell told the Times. “We’re still not sure if this is going to continue … but it certainly is an inauspicious start.”

Health care workers at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in the Central California city of Visalia have been working double and triple shifts to treat patients.

“It’s like a MASH unit ,” Dr. Ed Hirsch, the hospital’s chief medical officer, told KRON.

Cases of influenza have reached epidemic proportions , touching nearly all parts of the United States and killing at least 20 children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. In California, at least 42 people younger than 65 have died since October, the Times reports.

On Tuesday, doctors with the CDC sat down with the media and health care professionals to provide an update.

"This year what we're seeing is called H3N2 and we know from past seasons when we look back over 10 to 15 years, this virus causes the most hospitalizations, more illnesses," said Dr. Alicia Fry , CDC Epidemiology & Prevention Branch, Influenza Division.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/flu_3.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/flu_3.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/flu_3.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > The most recent flu activity. (CDC) (CDC)

Fry said it's still too soon to tell whether this season is any worse than any others in the past.

"It seems like a bigger flu season than normal. In reality, when we look in a couple of weeks and we look back, it may be a typical flu season like we have every year," Fry said.

(MORE: Hospitals Desperate for IV Bags in Flu Season )

According to a CDC weekly report released last week, the flu is widespread in all states except Hawaii and the District of Columbia. At least 60,000 cases of the flu have been reported. Numbers are expected to rise with the new weekly CDC flu report that will be released on Friday.

The CDC notes that this year's vaccine is only expected to be about 32 percent effective because H3N2 tends to mutate. The strains used in the vaccine are determined months before the season actually begins so it's difficult to be 100 percent accurate.

"How well the vaccine works can depend in part on the match between the vaccine virus used to produce the vaccine and the circulating viruses that season," the CDC notes. "It’s not possible to predict what viruses will be most predominant during the upcoming season."

During this year's flu season in Australia, the vaccine was only 10 percent effective.

Still, the CDC recommends that all people over the age of five get the shot to reduce the symptoms of the virus.

"It's not too late to get a flu vaccine — as long as flu is spreading vaccination should continue," the CDC's Kristen Nordlund told weather.com. "It’s important to know that it takes about two weeks for protection to set in."

(MORE: Places You’re More Likely to Catch the Flu )

According to the CDC, people at high risk for flu complications include children younger than five, adults 65 years and older and pregnant women. Those with medical conditions such as asthma, chronic lung or heart disease, diabetes and obesity are also at risk for flu complications, including pneumonia.

Anti-virals like Tamiflu are effective in lessening the symptoms of H3N2, but are most effective if administered within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms.

The CDC recommends individuals presenting with symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches and fatigue seek medical attention as quickly as possible.