More children died this past flu season than they have in 15 years, CDC reports
More U.S.children have died this flu season than at any time since the swine flu pandemic 15 years ago, according to a federal report released Friday.The 216 pediatric deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eclipse the 207 reported last year.
It’s the most since the 2009-2010 H1N1 global flu pandemic.It’s a startlingly high number, given that the flu season is still going on.The final pediatric death tally for the 2023-2024 flu season wasn’t counted until autumn.“This number that we have now is almost certainly an undercount, and one that — when the season is declared over, and they compile all the data — it’s almost certain to go up,” said Dr.
Sean O’Leary, of the American Academy of Pediatrics.There are likely several contributors to this season’s severity, but a big one is that fewer children are getting flu shots, added O’Leary, a University of Colorado pediatric infectious diseases specialist.The flu vaccination rate for U.S.children has plummeted from about 64% five years ago to 49% this season.Flu vaccinations may not prevent people from coming down with symptoms, but research shows they are highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, O’Leary said.The season has not only been hard on children.
CDC officials have described it as “ highly severe,” and estimate that so far there have been at least 47 million illnesses, 610,000 hospitalizations and 26,000 deaths this season.CDC officials have information about underlying conditions on nearly 5,200 adults who were hospitalized with flu this season, and 95% had at least one existing health problem.But among 2,000 hospitalized children with more detailed health information, only about 53% had an underlying condition — including asthma and obesity.The CDC report did not say how many of the children who died were vaccinated.
The agency did not make an expert available to talk about the flu season.The good news is that flu indicators have b...