Doctor’s offices, walk-in clinics and emergency rooms across Northwest Arkansas report seeing increasing numbers of patients with flulike symptoms - exhaustion, fever, cough and sore throat.

“This started late December, early January,” said nurse Juanita Taylor, practice manager for the Mercy Urgent Care-River Valley clinic in Fort Smith. “We have people at the door when we get here in the morning.”

The clinic’s patient loadhas increased from 50 to 60 patients a day to 60 to 90, she said. Clinic hours are from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, but physicians are staying as late as 11 p.m.. The clinic also has weekend hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday.

The Arkansas Department of Health has received reports of influenza, also known as seasonal flu, from all regions of the state, said Ed Barham, department spokesman. At least seven people have died because of the flu since the middle of December, hesaid.

Some flu seasons are worse than others, and this one appears to have hit hard, he said.

“We’ve had more people get sick earlier and more people become severely ill withthe flu,” Barham said.

Still, less than half of the state’s population receives a flu vaccine, he said. from 60 to 80 percent of people who receive the vaccine avoid catching the flu. Even though about 20 to 40 percent of people who receive the vaccination get sick, they tend to be sick for a shorter period of time, he said.

Since Dec. 1, 13 of 33 tests given to diagnose the flu have been positive at the Eureka Springs Hospital emergency room, said Angie Shaw, director of the emergency room. One person was admitted to the hospital because of the flu, she said.

Shaw said hospitalizations for the flu typically occurwhen patients have become dehydrated as a result of high fevers and not eating and drinking.

“I have a lot more people coming in for flulike symptoms,” she said.

The most recent weekly report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows high activity for “influenza-like illness” in 29 states, including Arkansas. The report covers Dec. 23-29.

According to the CDC report, three types of flu virus are circulating: influenza A H3N2, influenza A H1N1 and influenza B. Since Oct. 1, the CDC has characterized 413 influenza viruses. Its tests found that the influenza vaccine protects against 99 percent of the H3N2 viruses circulating, all of the H1N1 viruses circulating and most ofthe B strains.

However, a second type of B strain is circulating that was not included in the vaccine.

The CDC collects information through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network, which comprises 2,700 health-care providers in 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.

Visits to the Johnson County Regional Medical Center emergency room in Clarksville picked up beginning in November, said Ranay Storms, a nurse who is an infection preventionist. The increase in patient visits - from 1,375 in October to 1,512 in November - coincided with the patients arriving with flulike symptoms, Storms said.

In six weeks starting the first week of December, theJohnson County center reported 75 cases of flulike illness to the CDC and the state Health Department, Storms said. Flulike illnesses are defined as having a fever above 100.8 degrees, cough and sore throat.

“They try to make their best guess on what to put in the vaccine,” she said, but noted that some hospital employees and community members have become ill even after receiving a vaccine, she said.

This month, cases of pneumonia, a complication of flu, are picking up, she said.

Her physicians keep telling her that they hope she gave them “a really good flu shot,” Storms said.

“I’m encouraging them all to wear their masks and wash their hands,” she said. “We have hand sanitizer everywhere.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/11/2013