Still Feeling Sick in Montana? It Might Not Be Flu

It's increasingly clear that Montana is finally emerging from a late-spiking flu season, although nearly 500 cases were still reported toward the end of March.

That's still a large drop from the weeks after the first of the year, when county officials across the Treasure State reported a surge in Influenza A cases and hospitalizations.

We're also getting a clearer picture of how many people were hospitalized this year.

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A different flu season

The last couple of "post-pandemic" years, Montana's flu season had started earlier in the fall and then tailed off the second half of the winter. In fact, in 2022-23, flu cases spiked very early.

But the latest report from the Montana DPHHS shows this season, cases started slow in December and then spiked in early to mid-February, topping over 1800 reported cases on February 15th. But by the week of March 22nd, weekly case reports had fallen to 454.

DPHHS

All told, more than 900 people have had to be hospitalized, over 97% of all those cases with Influenza A. There have been 266 cases of H1N1 this season, and 105 reported cases of Influenza B.

Nearly 60% of those requiring hospital stays were 60 or older. There have been 48 deaths.

What about other respiratory illnesses in Montana?

DPHHS also reports COVID hasn't gone away, although cases this winter are a fraction of what we saw during the outbreak 5 years ago.

The state reports 2,616 cases of COVID-19 so far in 2025 (with over 17,000 overall last year). The total cases in 2022, the highest of the pandemic, was over 128,000.

24 people have died from COVID-19 this year. Over 1300 Montanans died in 2020 and 1,742 in 2021.

Reports of RSV have also been dropping over the past few weeks, although nearly 14% of those tested have shown positive results.

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