Hawaii’s flu season appears to be peaking now, several months later than normal.

High incidences of the flu are typically seen in December, January and February.

"Usually at this time of the year you won’t see any," said Melanie Kelly, medical director of Pearl City Urgent Care, which reported 50 patients, primarily school-age children and teachers, with likely cases of the flu in the past three weeks.

"We’re getting kind of alarmed," said Kelly.

The state Health Department couldn’t immediately provide figures of how many flu cases there have been in Hawaii in recent weeks, but did acknowledge the unusual late outbreak.

"The peak of the season seems to be later this year than usual," said Joe Elm, field investigation supervisor of the state Department of Health’s disease investigation branch.

Flu season has also arrived late on the mainland, which could be contributing to its spread in Hawaii.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta, Ga., recently issued a notice of a later flu season throughout the nation.

"Any time there’s an increase (in flu) on the mainland, we’re likely to see an increase of it in travelers. If there’s more flu there, they share the flu with us," said Elm.

Bob Ruggieri, medical director of Kahala Urgent Care, said the late flu season is "highly unusual."

"All year I’ve been saying to my patients, we’re lucky we haven’t seen any cases of the flu," Ruggieri said. "It was one or two a month up until about a month ago. I would estimate now that we’re seeing about a dozen a day, roughly, with either confirmed flu or flu-like symptoms."

Fortunately, the virus doesn’t appear to be any worse than previous versions, he said, although it continues to be highly contagious.

Influenza droplets from coughing and sneezing can remain on a surface for 30 seconds to eight hours, according to the state Department of Health.

"The real issue is if you cough and sneeze you’re spreading these droplets on surfaces that people then can touch — doorknobs, escalators," Elm said.

In Hawaii, influenza cases can occur year-round because of the large number of tourists from all parts of the world. The influenza virus infects the respiratory tract and can have more severe and potentially life-threatening complications.

The Health Department said other contagious respiratory illnesses that are not vaccine-preventable are circulating statewide as well, including adenovirus, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), parainfluenza virus and rhinovirus (cold). These, along with the flu, can cause complications such as pneumonia, a potentially deadly inflammation of the lungs resulting from infection.

Kelly, the Pearl City medical director, said, "We’ve also been seeing complications of the flu-like pneumonia. We’re seeing more pneumonias than we usually see at this time."

For Mary Jane Tabios, a Honolulu medical assistant, the late flu came as a double surprise. Not only is it odd to catch the flu in April, but, for her, it’s unusual to get it at all.

"I never got the flu for 20 years and then I got it (last month)," said Tabios. "Somebody must of had it bad for me to catch it. I guess it is stronger. It took me five days to break (the fever). Maybe something was a little off this past season."