United States: The recently released federal report shows that this flu season killed more US children than any season since the year when the swine flu pandemic hit 15 years ago.
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Pediatric deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reached 216 during this season, surpassing the previous record of 207 deaths from last year.
The recorded number surpasses any since the 2009-2010 H1N1 global influenza pandemic.
This death toll stands out as unusually high, given that the current flu season has not ended yet.
The final total of pediatric flu deaths for the 2023-2024 season received official counts only later in autumn.
According to Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics, “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,” US News reported.
The lack of pediatric flu shot uptake constitutes a major element in the current flu season’s intense severity, according to O’Leary, who serves as a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado.
During this flu season, not half of the children, but only two out of five US children, received their yearly vaccination.
More U.S. children have died this flu season than at any time since the swine flu pandemic 15 years ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said 216 pediatric deaths already have been reported. That eclipses the 207 reported the pr… https://t.co/PXd7UDBt9M
— KSTP (@KSTP) May 2, 2025
Research indicates that flu vaccinations stop hospitalizations while completely blocking out deaths, according to O’Leary.
Since its beginning, the season has generated severe difficulties for children as well as other groups.
Officials from the CDC have declared this winter’s flu outbreak to be “highly severe” while the situation has generated a minimum of 47 million illnesses, 610,000 hospitalizations, and 26,000 deaths this season.
Data from the CDC regarding adult patients hospitalized with flu this season shows that 95% of them had at least one underlying health issue among the 5,200 cases where officials tracked their conditions.
Detailed health records indicate that 47% of hospitalized children aged under 18 years had no underlying medical condition except for asthma and obesity.