• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Flu Death Rate High Among U.S. Children in 2003-04

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 December 2005, 17:10 CST

By Gene Emery

BOSTON -- The flu killed more U.S. children than chicken pox, whooping cough, and measles combined in the 2003-2004 flu season, suggesting children should be vaccinated as aggressively as the elderly, a new study showed.

Of 153 children killed by flu in that winter, nearly two-thirds were under age 5, according to the study released on Wednesday and led by Niranjan Bhat and Jennifer Wright of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The highest death rate was among infants under 6 months.

And while people with underlying medical problems typically face the greatest risk of death from the flu, nearly half the youngsters who died in the 2003-2004 season seemed to have no underlying medical problems, such as asthma or heart disease.

"It was surprising that almost one half were previously healthy," Bhat told Reuters. "We don't know if there's something about these healthy kids that put them at extra risk."

The survey, the first to systematically use laboratory tests to confirm fatal flu cases, also showed that "influenza can become really severe really fast. Almost one-third died outside a hospital setting, and almost one-third died after 3 days of illness," Bhat said.

The vast majority of children struck by the flu recover without problems.

Bhat said preliminary numbers from last year's flu season show that the number of childhood deaths was much lower -- a little more than 40.

It wasn't until last year that the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended a flu shot for all children age 6 to 23 months.

"It is likely that, during the 2003-2004 season, more deaths among children were associated with influenza than with any other currently vaccine-preventable disease in the United States," said the team. "Increased influenza-vaccine coverage and early identification and effective treatment of influenza among children should be key goals."

The childhood death rate is dwarfed by the overall death rate from the flu, which typically kills 36,000 Americans and a half million people globally. Only about 65 percent of seniors get the recommended flu shot.

The childhood flu death rate in 2003-2004 may actually have been higher because testing for influenza was not done in all cases where children died of lung illness and, in some areas, tests were not done at the beginning of the season.

On the other hand, the strain of flu common that year, known as H3N2, carries a higher rate of death in general.

Doctors were not required to report a childhood death caused by influenza until October 2004.

In a commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine, where the study appears, Raphael Dolin of Harvard Medical School said it may be important to vaccinate children against the flu because they often help spread it.

"Children constitute both a population that is highly vulnerable to influenza infection and one of the most important links in its transmission," said Dolin. Control measures "need to be effective and applicable to the youngest among us."

However, vaccines do not work in infants under 6 months. In those cases, vaccinating mothers and pregnant women might provide the best protection.

A year ago, many people had trouble getting flu shots because one manufacturer lost its license and half the doses destined for the United States had to be destroyed.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category