An additional 20 flu-related deaths in Arkansas were reported in the past week, raising the state's total deaths from the current flu season to 179.
Meanwhile, the number of new cases continues to decline, according to information reported by doctors and hospitals to the state Department of Health.
"We feel confident that we've hit the peak, and we're on the downhill side," said Jennifer Dillaha, medical director for the Health Department's immunization program. "We certainly hope that's true."
Even so, with the flu likely to continue spreading for six to eight more weeks, people who haven't gotten flu shots should still get them, Dillaha said.
That includes people who have already gotten the flu, she said, since people can get more than one type of flu during the same season.
"We're still way above the epidemic threshold," she said. "We're headed down, but it's still very high."
During the week that ended Saturday, the number of patients visiting emergency rooms with high fevers and coughs or sore throats fell by more than 38 percent compared with the previous week, from 1,782 to 1,094, the Health Department reported.
Those patients also made up a smaller percentage of all emergency room patients, with the percentage falling from 7.7 percent to 5.4 percent.
Similarly, about 6.6 percent of patients visiting doctors' offices had flu-like symptoms, compared with 7.5 percent the previous week.
It was the second-straight week of declines in the percentage of emergency room patients with flu-like symptoms and the third-straight week of declines in the percentage of doctor's office patients with such symptoms.
Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that 6.4 percent of doctor's office patients had flu-like symptoms during the week that ended Feb. 17, down from 7.4 percent a week earlier.
Flu-related claims paid by the Arkansas Medicaid program, and Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield also fell for the third-straight week.
Earlier this month, the death toll surpassed the 110 people who died in the state during 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 12 people who were age 65 or older and eight who were 45-64.
The state's other deaths this season include three children or teenagers 18 or younger, 11 people age 25-44, 23 people age 45-64 and 122 people who were 65 or older.
The true number of deaths from the flu is likely even higher, Dillaha said, because the flu may not be listed on a death certificate even when it is a contributing factor.
About two-thirds of deaths during a flu season are typically reported after the peak of transmission, meaning the death toll in Arkansas is likely to increase significantly over the next few weeks even as the number of new cases continues to decline, health officials have said.
Positive tests for influenza A and B have declined for the past few weeks, with influenza B, which more commonly affects children, continuing to be more common than influenza A.
Earlier, the season was dominated by an influenza A virus known as H3n2 that tends to cause more illness than other flu viruses.
Preliminary estimates indicate that the flu shot reduces the risk of infection by any type of flu by 36 percent, the CDC has reported. That includes a 25 percent reduction in the risk of H3N2 infection and a 42 percent reduction in the risk of influenza B infection.
The shot is available at many drug stores and doctor's offices, and by appointment from the Health Department's county health units. The department will charge a patient's insurance but not the patient, and it offers the vaccination free to the uninsured.
So far this season, the department has administered about 224,000 shots, including about 15 at a clinic on Saturday at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, department spokesman Meg Mirivel said. Last year, the department administered 217,121 shots.
Of those who have died from the flu, at least 36 had been vaccinated and 70 had not. Whether any of the others who died had been vaccinated hadn't been determined, Mirivel said.
A Section on 02/28/2018