Arkansas flu deaths reach 215

Five more flu deaths were reported to the state in the past week week, increasing the death toll from the current flu season to 215, the state Department of Health reported Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the department reported fewer than 1 percent of patients visiting the doctor had flulike symptoms — about the same percentage that’s typically reported outside of the flu season, said Jennifer Dillaha, medical director for the Health Department’s immunization program.

“There’s enough counties reporting activity that we don’t feel like we’re out of flu season yet, but we’re getting very close,” she said.

During the week that ended Saturday, the department received reports of the flu from 30 of the state’s 75 counties, down from 36 a week earlier.

The fewer than 1 percent of patients visiting the doctor who had a high fever and cough or sore

throat during the week that ended Saturday compared with 1.5 percent of patients who had such symptoms a week earlier.

Among patients visiting the emergency room, 1.2 percent had flu-like symptoms, compared with 1.4 percent a week earlier.

Despite the decrease in new cases, Dillaha said the number of deaths will likely continue to increase as the Health Department collects information from death certificates and as people who became sick with the flu earlier in the season die from related complications.

“Sometimes flu, particularly in older adults, will trigger a serious decline in their health” that results in death weeks later, she said. The department counts the death as being flu-related if the flu is listed as a primary cause of death or one of the secondary causes, she said.

The death toll in February 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 most recent deaths included those of two people who were age 65 or older, one person who was between age 45 and 64 and two people age 25-44.

The other deaths this flu season include those of five children or teenagers under age 19, 12 people age 25-44, 34 people age 45-64 and 159 people who were 65 or older.

Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that new flu cases have been declining since a peak in early February.

As of late March, Arkansas was one of 28 states that reported having minimal flu activity. The level was reported as moderate in eight states and low in 12 states. Only Alaska and Virginia reported high levels of activity.

People who haven’t gotten a flu shot this season should get one if they live in an area where the flu is circulating and are at risk for developing complications, Dillaha said.

According to the CDC, those at risk include young children, the elderly, pregnant women, nursing home residents and people with chronic illnesses such as asthma or heart disease.

Dillaha said she would also recommend the shot for people who are planning to travel to the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu typically circulates at elevated levels from April through September.

Of the Arkansans who have died from the flu this season, at least 44 had been vaccinated and 87 had not, Health Department spokesman Meg Mirivel said. Whether the others who have died had been vaccinated hadn’t been determined.