THE flu has become a national epidemic, and the number of deaths it is blamed for—including 15 children this past year—continues to increase, as flu season begins its peak usually between the months of December and February.
The latest figures, released Wednesday, Dec. 31 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cover the week ending December 20. The flu is already suspected in other deaths, many of them children, including a four-year-old boy in Port Isabel, Texas.
In the week ending Dec. 20, nearly 7 percent of deaths were blamed on pneumonia and flu—a considerably higher amount than in 2013, though later on in the season the percentage of deaths blamed solely on the flu generally goes higher.
“Right now, all of the CDC’s influenza surveillance systems are showing elevated activity,” the CDC’s flu division said in an emailed statement, according to The Washington Post.
In the last three seasons, the number children that died from the flu was highest in 2013. In 2011-12 there were 37 deaths; in 2012-13 the number was 171; and in 2013-14 there were 109 deaths. In the 2012-13 season, over 12,000 were hospitalized with flu-related illness, and 90 percent of reported deaths were of children who were not vaccinated.
“It is a bit early to make any kind of characterization about pediatric deaths this season,” Erin Burns, a health communications specialist with the Influenza Division at the CDC said in an email, according to The Washington Post, “but from looking at the curve going back to 2011-2012, it doesn’t seem like anything unusual is happening.”
While the names of the child victims have not been released, a family in Minnesota has said their 17-year-old daughter, Shannon Zwanziger, died in early December 2014 after having the flu for nearly a week.
The CDC said it can only confirm that there were two “confirmed reports of flu-pediatric deaths in Minnesota this season.”
Though alarming, the latest CDC statistics do not indicate that the flu outbreak this year will be worse than in previous years overall.
Flu activity is high in nearly half of the country, including 22 states and Puerto Rico, according to data from the report. The elderly are generally most affected, with the highest rate of flu-related hospitalizations among those ages 65 and up.
Overall, it is unknown how many who died from the flu this year were vaccinated; however, CNN reported an “unusually bad year for the vaccine.” The strain going around — H3N2 — is not what was put in the vaccine, Trish Perl, head of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention said. Just over half of the strains tested were not covered by the vaccine because H3N2 was not being spread at the time the flu vaccination was designed.
“H3N2 predominant seasons tend to have more hospitalizations and more deaths,” CDC Director Thomas Frieden said in early December.
The H3N2 is a strain typically linked to higher rates of hospitalization and death, especially for at-risk individuals with complications — commonly the elderly, those with chronic health problems, and young children.
While vaccines still provide a level of protection, “it’s clearly not complete protection” and “we could see a lot more illness because we have a lot less people who are immune,” Perl told The Post.
Still, the CDC said getting vaccinated is “the best way to reduce the chances that you will get seasonal flu and spread it to others” and “may make your illness milder if you do get sick.”
With flu season in full swing, health officials warn about checking for symptoms as soon as they happen. Fever, sore throat, coughing, and body aching are common signs of the flu, and it’s extremely important to take antiviral medications or see a doctor as soon as possible. When taken immediately, Tamiflu and Relenza have been considered “most effective” at reducing complications and keeping people out of the hospital.
“The flu is bad, and you want to do anything you can to prevent getting it and to prevent giving it to other people,” said Dr. Lisa Thebner, a pediatrician in New York City. “The vaccine isn’t perfect, but it’s the best protection we have for prevention.”
(Agnes Constante and Allyson Escobar / AJPress with reports from CNN and The Washington Post)
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