Arkansas’ death toll from the flu increased to 13 after the confirmation of three deaths Thursday, said Cathy Flanagin, director of health communications for the state Department of Health.
The flu continues to affect younger and healthier people than recent flu seasons, Flanagin said.
Of the 13 documented fatalities, five victims were in the 25-to-44 age group. Three were between the ages of 45 and 64. Two victims were 2 years old or younger, and two were 65 or older. Flanagin was unable to confirm the age of the 13th patient by the newspaper’s Thursday deadline.
Public-health officials have said that circulation of H1N1 this year could be the cause of more severe cases being reported in young and middle-aged people.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that the flu is widespread in 25 states including Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Dirk Haselow, medical director for communicable disease and immunization for the state Health Department, sent out an email to health-care workers earlier this week warning that this flu season could be severe.
“The Arkansas Department of Health is currently receiving increasing numbers of reports of influenza infections and hospitalizations from all regions of the state,” Haselow stated. “To put this year in perspective, please know that last year was the worst flu year in Arkansas in over 35 years. Compared to last year at this time we are seeing similar levels of flu-related emergency department visits and nearly double the reports of flu-related outpatient visits. This season has all the markings of being a severe one.”
There were 61 deaths recorded in the state during the 2012-13 flu season.
The department’s weekly flu report states that from Dec. 29 to Saturday, 11 percent of outpatient visits in the state were for influenza-like illness. The report does not give a total count of outpatient visits. However, it says that 2,550 of 17,917 (14.2 percent) of emergency-room visits last week were for influenza-like illness.
There also were more than 400 hospital admissions for the flu or a flu-like illness as of Saturday, the report states. There had been nearly 270 hospitalizations before Dec. 28.
The report warns that the number of flu cases is likely to increase as school resumes after the Christmas and New Year’s break.
Flanagin said that not all flu cases are reported to the department.
“We know there is more flu in the state than has been reported to us,” she said. “This also means that there may be more deaths than we are aware of.”
Michael Jhung, the CDC’s medical officer in the influenza division, said it is not uncommon to see so many states reporting widespread flu.
It is too soon to truly classify the season, Jhung said. However, he said it is likely that the season will not be described as a mild one when all the data are in.
The country continues to see an increase in flu cases, he said.
“I think it is safe to say that we are right in middle of the flu season,” Jhung said. “I don’t think we are at the peak yet. I expect it will continue to increase for a couple more weeks.”
Jhung said H1N1 is the predominant strain of flu circulating this year. The flu has not been predominant since 2009, when, compared with other flu strains, it also affected a larger number of young and middle-aged people.
“We are hearing reports about severe illness in young and middle-aged adults,”Jhung said. “We know that young and middle-aged adults are impacted more by H1N1, and we know that young and middle-aged adults are the lowest-vaccinated group in the United States. It is important for this group to think about getting vaccinated if they haven’t already been vaccinated.”
Thirty-four people in the 45-to-64 age group died from the flu during the 2009-10 flu season in Arkansas. There was 54 deaths overall that season. Seven people between the ages of 25 and 44 also died from the flu in the 2012-13 season. The 2009-10 flu season had the highest number of deaths in those age groups since at least 2000.
The 2012-13 flu season had eight deaths between the ages of 45 and 65 and six between the ages of 25 and 44.
Keyur Vyas, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said there have been 58 confirmed flu cases for adults in the UAMS health-care network.
He said most those were treated as outpatients, and 23 were admitted to the hospital, including three who are in the intensive-care unit. He said the hospital has not had a patient die from the virus this flu season. He said some UAMS clinics are in different cities and may use different labs, so the number for confirmed flu cases could behigher.
The ages of patients confirmed to have the flu have ranged from 20 to 87 with the average age at 43, Vyas said. He said the data do not include children.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 01/10/2014