State sees two more flu deaths

Two more flu-related deaths were reported in the state in the past week, raising the death toll from the flu season to 205, the state Department of Health reported Tuesday.

The department also reported an uptick in patients with high fevers and coughs or sore throats visiting doctors’ offices in the state, after reporting several weeks of declines.

During the week that ended Saturday, 2.5 percent of patients visiting doctors had such symptoms, according to reports from participating health care providers, up from 1.6 percent a week earlier.

That increase came after six weeks of declines, from a peak of more than 11 percent of patients visiting doctors offices in late January and early February.

Jennifer Dillaha, medical director for the Health Department’s immunization program, said she expects the decline in new cases to continue after the apparent bump last week.

“I’m feeling very encouraged that the flu season will wind down pretty soon, and we can all kind of breathe a sigh of relief,” she said. “It’s been a very hard year for a lot of people.”

The death toll last month surpassed the 110 people who died in the 2014-15 season, which had been the state’s deadliest since the Health Department began tracking flu deaths in 2000.

The two most recent deaths were both of people 65 or older.

Of the other people who have died from the flu, 154 were 65 or older, 32 were 45-64, 12 were 25-44 and five were 18 or younger.

Dillaha said the number of deaths will likely continue increasing as the Health Department collects information from death certificates.

Nationwide the percentage of patients visiting doctors and reporting flu-like symptoms peaked at 7.5 percent in late January and early February and had fallen to 2.7 percent as of mid-March, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite the increase in doctors visits among Arkansas patients with flu-like symptoms last week, other measures showed that the state’s flu season is continuing to wind down.

For instance, during the week that ended Saturday, positive flu tests were reported in 37 Arkansas counties, down from 45 a week earlier, according to the Health Department.

Among patients visiting emergency rooms, 1.6 percent had flu symptoms, down from 1.9 percent a week earlier.

Of the people who have died from the flu this season, at least 42 had been vaccinated against the flu and 85 had not, Health Department spokesman Meg Mirivel said. Whether the other 78 people had been vaccinated hadn’t been determined.

With the flu season expected to continue for a few more weeks, Dillaha said she would recommend a flu shot for people who haven’t gotten one yet, live in areas where the flu is still circulating and have elevated risks of developing complications if they get the flu.

Those at risk for such complications, she said, include people 65 and older, pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease.

She said she would also recommend the shot for people planning to travel to the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season typically starts in April.