Connecticut Department of Public Health reports first flu death of season

Posted: Oct 22, 2018 / 06:54 AM EDT

Updated: Oct 22, 2018 / 05:48 PM EDT

The Connecticut Department of Public Health is reporting the first death from the flu this season in the state.

On Friday, the The Connecticut Department of Public Health reported that a patient over the age of 65 had died from the flu.

So far this flu season, there have been 22 people hospitalized in Connecticut and flu activity has been slowly increasing in the state since the end of August.

On Monday morning, Senator Richard Blumenthal joined other medical professionals at Hartford Hospital to urge residents to get their flu shots.

The United States is seeing a mild flu season so far this year.

“In the flu season last year, 85 percent of the cases we saw admitted to Hartford Hospital were over the age of 30,” stated Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Jack Ross.

According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu activity was minimal across 49 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City last week.

“We never know until the CDC can actually take the virus that is circulating and forward it down to Atlanta. They sequence then and they try to determine how good of a match it is each year. We won’t know that for another two to three months,” Dr. Ross said.

The agency reports five-point-six percent of deaths during the first week of October were due to pneumonia and influenza.

“People over 65, it takes their bodies a little bit longer to create the antigens that we need, so we give them the high dose,” explained Nurse Practitioner Danielle Deline.

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Last year, over 80,000 nationwide died from the flu, including 154 in Connecticut.