A late-season flu strain is pounding some places in Washington. What about the Tri-Cities?

While some communities in Washington are getting pounded by a late-season flu strain, it appears the Tri-Cities is being spared.

That’s welcome news at the end of a particularly harsh flu season that saw 20 local fatalities — far more than any other in recent memory.

At this point, it appears the local flu season has peaked and now is waning, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer of the Benton-Franklin Health District.

“We’re not back to baseline (in terms of pre-flu season illness levels), but we’re getting close. Based on our numbers, we’re almost back at the bottom of our curve,” Person said.

Spokane, King, Kitsap and Clark counties are among those seeing outbreaks of influenza type B — different than the type A strain that was sending people to the hospital across the country earlier in the season.

In Spokane County, type B caused nearly three-quarters of the flu-related hospitalizations in March, the Spokane Regional Health District reported.

In the Tri-Cities, the number of type B cases has ticked up, but the number of type A cases still is higher, and flu levels overall are dropping, Person said.

Type A often is considered harsher, but that’s not actually the case, one expert said.

“The world’s four pandemics were caused by influenza A, so it was long believed that B caused less severe symptoms. We now know from research that it causes equally severe illness,” said Dr. George Novan, clinical professor of medicine at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, in a news release.

Person urged Tri-Citians to remain vigilant against the flu, even though it’s late in the season.

That means practicing good hygiene, including frequent hand washing, covering coughs and staying home when sick.

People in high-risk categories — including pregnant women, young children, the elderly and people with other medical conditions — should consult a health care provider if they think they might have the flu, she said.

The 20 people who died of flu in the Tri-Cities this season all were at higher risk because of their age or underlying health issues. About two-thirds weren’t vaccinated, local health officials have said.

Before this season, the most flu deaths seen locally since 2012 was six.

That was in 2015, and it was unusual — the three years before and two years after only saw one to two flu deaths each.

Statewide, 252 flu deaths had been confirmed as of the end of March.

This story was originally published April 10, 2018 at 5:16 PM with the headline "A late-season flu strain is pounding some places in Washington. What about the Tri-Cities?."