Arkansas flu-related death toll hits 100

The very young and the very old still at risk

Arkansas Department of Health LITTLE ROCK — The number of flu-related deaths in Arkansas this season has reached 100, health officials reported Tuesday.

The state Department of Health reported that 63 of the dead were at least 65 years old. One of the dead was a child.

Seventy-one percent of the adults who died were not vaccinated or had an unknown vaccination history, according to the department. The department said 28 schools have temporarily closed this season because of the flu.

Federal health officials are warning that the flu season in the U.S. has reached its peak much later in the season than previous years.

In Wisconsin, which has seen a higher than usual number of cases in schools, said students should expect the flu to be prevalent on campuses through the end of the semester.

State health officials there reported a stronger strain of flu continues to dominate, but the deadlier strain, H3N2, are most severe for people under the age of 5 or over 60 In Delaware, it has been the third deadliest flu season on record, with more than 60 deaths including three children.

In Iowa, the state Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are monitoring flu activity and using interactive maps to visualize antibiotic resistance data. Researchers at the University of Iowa School of Pharmacy are teaming up with the U.S. Department of Geography to develop and interpret the data.

“This year has actually been a relatively severe flu season in terms of the total number of cases,” said University Health Services’ Dr. William Kinsey. “What’s been a little bit different is we didn’t get our highest peak activity until about two weeks ago, which is very late.”

In the U.S., the number of patients with flu-like symptoms has dropped, but flu activity is still widespread in many states, according to the CDC.