As the peak of the annual flu season approaches, health officials in the U.S. announced on Thursday that doctors should be more proactive in determining whether patients with flu-like symptoms are suffering from bird flu.

While the threat to the general public is still considered low, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aims to improve their tracking of flu strains in order to promptly identify cases of bird flu.

“We need to transition to a system that provides real-time information,” Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at the CDC, informed reporters on Thursday morning.

Both bird flu and the majority of seasonal flu currently in circulation are classified as type A flu. Standard flu tests can differentiate between types A and B, but they cannot specify whether a person is dealing with seasonal flu—which is typically unpleasant but generally benign—or bird flu, known scientifically as H5N1, which is unfamiliar to the immune system and can be more serious.

Under the updated protocol, individuals tested for flu in hospitals nationwide, particularly those in intensive care units, will also undergo testing to confirm they do not have bird flu. Shah noted that most hospitals possess the necessary equipment to conduct these subtype tests. For those lacking such resources, officials are striving to provide support.

There is particular concern surrounding individuals who have contracted bird flu without any clear source of exposure. Currently, the origins of three out of the 67 reported cases in the U.S. remain unknown, as these patients do not have connections to farms or direct interaction with birds known to carry the virus. One of the latest confirmed cases involved a child in San Francisco who presented with fever and conjunctivitis.

The revised strategy from the CDC aims to more accurately identify severe infections as hospital admissions for flu rise and the winter respiratory virus season approaches its typical peak, Shah explained.

To date, Shah shared that national influenza surveillance has gathered 83,000 samples, of which only three tested positive for H5 bird flu.

“This number is small, but it still holds significance,” Shah remarked. “We want to ascertain this figure as quickly as possible.”

In the meantime, over 100,000 individuals have been hospitalized due to the seasonal flu this year, and at least 9.1 million have reported infections, according to CDC statistics. They project that more than 200,000 people will be infected by the end of the season.