Black Oklahomans less likely to get flu shots, health leaders say

During last year's flu season, about 63 percent of white adults older than 65 got a flu vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, only about 50 percent of non-Hispanic black residents in the same age category got their flu shot, according to the CDC.

Overall, black adults are less likely than non-Hispanic white adults to have received the flu vaccine in the past year or to have ever received the pneumonia vaccine, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health.

Bobbie Nubine, the chief of immunization services at the state Health Department, said the department doesn't know for sure why a lower percentage of black residents have gotten their flu shots in previous years.

“What we have to do is assume it would be things such as cost or accessibility, things that we at the state Department of Health could have an impact on,” Nubine said.

Since Sept. 30, Oklahoma has seen 30 residents hospitalized with flu-related illness, defined as having a fever more than 100 degrees combined with cough or sore throat, according to the Health Department. No flu-related deaths have been confirmed.

Public health officials have expressed concern that this year's flu season could be worse than the past few years. The U.S. is experiencing an early flu season with high levels of activity concentrated in the south-central and southeastern regions, according to the CDC.