Flu kills six more; total for state 48

But agency says illnesses ebbing

Flu cases in the state remain high, with six deaths in the past week and 48 overall since the season started, according to a weekly report by the Arkansas Department of Health. Yet health officials say flu illness seems to have peaked and has been decreasing in recent weeks.

“I think we are definitely on the downslope, but we are still high on that downslope,” said Gary Wheeler, branch chief of infectious diseases at the Health Department.

Wheeler said he expects flu season to last several more weeks. He said those who have not received flu shots should still get them.

For the family of Lora Rice, there is no denying how severe the flu can be. Rice, 51, of Greenwood has been hospitalized with the flu in intensive care since the day after Christmas, said her sister Suzie Stovall.

Stovall said Rice has been slowly brought out of a drug-induced coma over the past week. Yet, she still uses a ventilator as life support to help her breathe. Rice’s communication remains limited to a nod or hand gesture here and there.

“She has made some baby steps,” Stovall said. “There is still a long, long way to go. Sometimes it takes a year. It is just waiting, lots of waiting.”

Rice, the mother of two, was transferred from a Fort Smith hospital to St. Louis Mercy Hospital earlier this month, Stovall said. She said Rice needed a pulmonary specialist at the St. Louis hospital to better treat her illness.

It is unknown whether Rice received a flu shot. Stovall said Rice indicated “no” when asked about getting a shot, but because of heavy sedation, her family members could not be positive about her response.

This week, for the first time in seven weeks the Health Department dropped the flu activity status in the state from the highest level to the third-highest level out of 11 color-coded levels.

Kerry Krell, spokesman for the department, said the flu intensity level is determined by collecting data from hospitals and health-care providers around the state. She said the percentage of cases that each provider reports is compared with the percentage that the provider reported in past years.

A weekly flu report released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention every Friday shows Arkansas and Oklahoma as the only states in the nation with the highest level of flu for the week ending Feb. 8,the most recent available.

The report rates the level of activity in each state from minimal to high based on the number of outpatient visits to health-care providers, according to the CDC website.

The highest level of flu was reported for the week ending Jan. 1, when there were 13 states reporting high levels. Those states included Arkansas and bordering states.

Nationally, cases of the flu have decreased in the past week but still remain high, the CDC report says.

Deaths from influenza and pneumonia remained above epidemic levels for the week ending Feb. 8, according to the report. The report states that 8.4 percent of all deaths in the CDC’s reporting system were because of the flu and pneumonia. The epidemic threshold is 7.3 percent during the sixth week this calendar year.

The CDC does not keep records on all adult flu deaths but does keep track of flu deaths as reported by 122 cities. The CDC does keep track of pediatric flu deaths, which reached 50 in the most recent report.

The latest data on the World Health Organization’s website shows that the United States and Canada are seeing fewer flu cases, while Mexico is beginning to see an increase. The predominate flu strain in North America has been the H1N1.

Europe is starting to see an increase in illness from the H1N1 strain and the seasonal flu strain H3N2, the website states. In eastern Asia, flu cases remain high, with H1N1 predominating. Flu cases - mostly the H3N2 strain - are increasing in western Asia, while Egypt is seeing more of the H1N1 strain, according to the website.

Flu cases in the southern hemisphere remained low.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/20/2014

Upcoming Events