Montana health officials have their fingers crossed that the worst of flu season is behind us.
"We are really hoping we are at the peak which may, in general, hang on a little while longer and then maybe begin a decline," says epidemiologist Karl Milhon from the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Milhon characterizes this flu season as fairly standard.
"Season-to-date, we’ve got 938 positive specimens through our public health lab and our partner hospitals that are doing confirmatory type testing," Milhon says.
A total of 204 Montanans have been hospitalized with the flu through the week ending January 14th. That’s a rate of almost 20 per 100,000 population. Milhon confirms that there have been "a handful" of flu-related deaths recently.
Details of those fatalities will be released next week. He says it’s never too late to get a flu shot and urges all Montanans to get one.