South Carolina experienced its first flu death as the season is off to a slower start this year amid concerns about another respiratory virus: measles.

The Department of Public Health confirmed Dec. 3 the state’s first influenza-related death in a person in the Lowcountry, but provided few other details. The first flu death in three previous years happened in either late September or late October.

The state has had over 1,000 confirmed tests through the latest report that ended Nov. 29, so “it speaks to the lack of virulence, at least to this point in time,” of the circulating flu strains, said Dr. Kent Stock, hospital epidemiologist for Roper St. Francis Healthcare.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there have been 450 deaths so far this flu season, w

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