The death toll for this year's flu season in Arkansas rose to 72 as of Wednesday morning, including 23 deaths reported in the past week, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
State epidemiologist Dirk Haselow said that this flu season appears to be on track to be the deadliest in the state since the department began closely tracking flu information about 15 years ago.
"This one has started early, and it's a bad one," Haselow said. "If it sustains longer than normal, it would be far worse than a season we've had in the past."
The deaths so far this year have included one child, identified in news reports as 8-year-old Tyler Dannaway of Little Rock, who died Jan. 16.
The other deaths reported as of Tuesday included 61 of people age 65 or older, seven of people age 45-64 and one of a person age 25-44, according to a Health Department report.
The deaths of two more adults were reported Wednesday morning, Health Department spokesman Meg Mirivel said. She said she didn't have additional information about their ages.
Nationally, the flu-linked deaths of 30 children had been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Jan. 12 during what health officials have described as one of the worst flu seasons in years.
Including children and adults, 1,278 deaths from the flu had been reported to the CDC as of Dec. 30.
While the most common strain in Arkansas and other states has been the H3N2, the Arkansas child's death was caused by the H1N1 strain, which tends to hit younger people harder, Haselow said.
While some evidence indicates that Arkansas is at or near the peak of its flu season, about two-thirds of deaths are typically reported after the peak, meaning Arkansas' death toll could triple, Haselow said.
That would put the number of deaths well above that of the 2014-15 season, which claimed 110 lives, the highest death toll of a flu season in the past 17 years.
At St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, the number of patients entering the emergency room with flu-like symptoms fell slightly last week, said Debbie Ledbetter, the hospital's director of infection prevention.
Still, compared with last year's season, the volume of patients this year remains higher, and more of them have ended up being hospitalized, she said.
"These folks are a lot sicker, but we have very sick patients here, so we can handle that," she said.
According to a Health Department report, the number of emergency room visits by patients with flu-like illnesses fell slightly during the week that ended Saturday but made up a larger percentage of all such visits than they did the previous week.
The percentage of doctor's office visits that were attributed to the flu fell to 9.3 percent from 10.1 percent a week earlier.
High rates of absences because of the flu and other illnesses have prompted the Russellville and Danville school districts to cancel a day of classes this month.
In Mountainburg in Northwest Arkansas, classes resumed Wednesday after being canceled Monday and Tuesday.
On Friday, 110 of the district's 625 students had been absent, along with 17 of its 65 teachers and six of its 55 support staff members, Superintendent Dennis Copeland said.
Eight of the district's nine cooks also had called in sick for Monday, before classes were canceled, he said. When school reopened Wednesday, the absences had dropped to 70 students, one teacher and four support staff members.
The flu has been one of the main reasons for the absences, along with strep throat and a "stomach bug," Copeland said.
The closure gave the school's custodial staff time to disinfect the classrooms and buses with the help of two devices that spray a sanitizing mist. He said he bought the devices, which are about the size of a leaf blower, along with a supply of the disinfectant material, for about $1,500 apiece Monday.
It was the first time he had canceled classes because of illness since he became superintendent 10 years ago, he said.
"Hopefully, when they returned today, the germs were gone," he said of students.
Gary Heral, owner of Heral Enterprises in Little Rock, said he has sold hundreds of the cleaning devices to school districts since he began carrying them a few years ago, including more than 50 since early December.
"A lot of times, you can show them, but until they have an outbreak" they don't purchase one, he said.
Out of all the state's deaths so far, only a third were of people who the Health Department could confirm had received a flu vaccination for this season, Haselow said.
That suggests the shot might be effective in preventing severe illness and death, even if it doesn't stop someone from getting the flu, Haselow said.
According to a CDC survey, more than 46 percent of Arkansas' residents received flu shots for the 2016-17 season. Haselow said it appears that about the same number of people got the shot for this season.
Those who haven't been vaccinated should get the shot, which takes about two weeks to become fully effective, he said.
"If it doesn't prevent illness entirely, it's likely to make it less severe and keep you out of the hospital," Haselow said.
He said people should also wash their hands frequently; cough into their elbows, instead of their hands; and stay home when they are sick.
Metro on 01/25/2018