The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) is out with its first weekly flu report for the season. It indicates “sporadic” influenza across the state, with two counties in North Central Arkansas among those reporting some of the highest school absenteeism rates.
The report released Wednesday for the week ending Oct. 5 indicates 11 counties, including Baxter and Izard, had school absenteeism rates above 6 percent. Two of the state’s 75 counties, Desha and St. Francis, had rates at 7.73 and 7 percent respectively, the highest in Arkansas. The average absenteeism rate last week was 5.2 percent among public schools.
During the flu seasons the ADH produces a Weekly Influenza Report for clinicians. The report provides information on flu activity in the state. The report also compares influenza like-illness (ILI) in Arkansas to activity in the U.S. ADH receives reports of only a fraction of flu cases, since it only requires reports of hospitalizations, deaths and outbreaks.Therefore, it is important to understand the information in the weekly update is representative of the timing and location of activity, but it does not reflect the overall burden of disease. It is presumed there are many more people actually affected than the report shows.
Since Sept. 29, over 66 positive influenza tests have been reported to the ADH online database by health care providers. Reported cases reflect only a portion of the actual numbers of flu cases in the state.
Among flu antigen tests that can distinguish between influenza A and B virus types, 72 percent were influenza A, and 28 percent were influenza B.
To date, no influenza-related deaths have been reported in Arkansas this flu season. A total of 120 deaths were reported last flu season.
To date, no nursing homes in Arkansas have reported influenza outbreaks.
To view the full report, click ADH flu report.
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