United States: Over 100 children have succumbed to the flu this season, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.
The current count of pediatric deaths, standing at 103, does not set a seasonal record. Despite children with pre-existing health conditions being more susceptible to severe flu outcomes, the recent CDC figures serve as a stark reminder that the flu can prove devastating to any child.
Alicia Budd, head of the CDC’s domestic influenza surveillance team, remarked, “This is certainly sobering information, but it’s not something necessarily unexpected.” Notably, more than half of the deceased children (53 percent) had no prior medical issues related to their influenza infection.
In the latest report, detailing ten new pediatric deaths, most occurred within the past few weeks, according to Budd, the reports by NBC News claimed.
Although individual cases may have reached the summit across the nation, the flu season is indeed a far cry. The CDC figures out that the country gave at least 28 million flu illnesses with 310,000 admissions throughout the year which has been recorded this season. Besides the 103 children who died from the flu, downloading to 20,000 newborns were among the ones disastrously affected.
Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky, a pediatric infectious disease physician Dr. Kristina Bryant, pointed out that “flashing the family often think flu is a normal stuffy nose and it’s no big deal,” but this doesn’t reflect the reality of the severity of the infection. Bryant, a physician who took care of critically ill children in the intensive care unit with the flu, shared
CDC’s Budd confirmed getting almost every child that died from the flu to not have completed flu shots at all. While just 50 percent of people got the flu shot this season, the CDC measurements estimate that the vaccine effectiveness in preventing hospitalization is, so far, 61 percent.
Budd value the vaccine and the fact that it will decrease chances of a person being referred to a physician by approximately a third and meeting this chance of admission to hospital by half.
Experts, however, cannot predict the virulence of specific flu virus strains each year. In the current season, half of the pediatric deaths were attributed to an influenza A strain, while 47 were linked to an influenza B strain. One child had both A and B strains.
Reflecting on a particularly severe flu season in 2014-15, where 141 children lost their lives, the heartbreaking story of Gianna Wehrkamp, a healthy 2-year-old, serves as a poignant reminder. Gianna’s rapid decline due to influenza A tragically resulted in her death within 48 hours of showing symptoms.
Gianna’s mother, Angie Wehrkamp, shared the devastating impact of neglecting the flu shot that year, expressing the enduring regret of not prioritizing vaccination for her daughter.