This Year’s Flu Season Killed Record Number Of Children.
The Washington Post (6/8) said a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report indicates that the flu “killed 172 children between October and May, making this season one of the deadliest since federal health authorities began tracking pediatric deaths 14 years ago.” The new figure “exceeds the 171 child deaths reported for 2012-2013, the previous record for a regular season,” according to the Post, which added, “Only the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which killed 358 children, was worse.” Daniel Jernigan, head of the CDC’s influenza division, explained that the number of deaths “is a record number since we’ve been keeping track, outside of the pandemic” and is considered to be an undercount because it only includes cases confirmed by laboratories listed on death certificates and reported to the CDC.
The AP (6/8) reported, “The past flu season wasn’t a pandemic, but it was long – 19 weeks” – and “also was unusually intense, with high levels of illness reported in nearly every state for weeks on end.”
Newsweek (6/8) reported that according to the CDC, “About 80 percent of the fatalities were among children who hadn’t been vaccinated.”
Let's all hope the flu vaccine picked for next epidemic season will be right on and effective.
Dr. T