First Arkansas flu death reported

The first flu death of the season in Arkansas was reported Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health said.

The person who died was not vaccinated and was between the ages of 45 and 64, according to Meg Mirivel said. The spokeswoman said she did not know the date the person had died and did not release information about where the person lived in Arkansas.

During the previous flu season, the state had a total of 227 deaths attributed to the illness, the most on record for the last three decades, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported. Most of the people who died were 65 or older.

Mirivel said it isn’t “unheard of” for people in the younger age range to die from the disease.

She said it was “hard to know ahead of time” how the coming season would compare, noting that the agency has seen more flu circulating this season than at the same time last year.

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