“I've taken care of kids who have ultimately died from flu. And almost universally, their parents tell me, ‘I had no idea that flu could do this to my child,'” Dr. Kristina Bryant said.
More than 100 children have died of the flu this season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.
The number of pediatric deaths — 103 so far — is not a seasonal record. While kids with underlying health problems are more at risk for severe outcomes from the flu, the latest CDC numbers provide a stark reminder that flu can indeed be devastating to any child.
“This is certainly sobering information, but it's not something necessarily unexpected,” said Alicia Budd, head of the CDC's domestic influenza surveillance team.
More than half of the children who died (53%) had no medical issues before their influenza infection, Budd said.
Among the 10 new pediatric deaths in the most recent report, most died within the last few weeks, Budd said.
Although cases seem to be peaking across the country, flu season is not over. The CDC estimates that the nation has logged at least 28 million flu illnesses, resulting in 310,000 hospitalizations so far this year. In addition to the 103 pediatric deaths, about 20,000 others have died of flu.
“There is a popular misconception among families that flu is just another cold virus, and that it's no big deal,” said Dr. Kristina Bryant, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky.
“I have taken care of kids who are critically ill in the intensive care unit with flu,” Bryant said. “I've taken care of kids who have ultimately died from flu. And almost universally, their parents tell me, ‘I had no idea that flu could do this to my child.'”
Small airways, big immune reaction
The vast majority of children infected with flu every year recover. One of the virus' biggest mysteries is how it can quickly and swiftly kill otherwise healthy and robust children without warning.
Kids have smaller airways, so breathing becomes compromised once a virus infects and inflames those airways, said Dr. Alexandra Yonts, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Children's immune systems are superprimed to attack any new germ that comes their way, said Yont. Sometimes those immune responses go too far.
As with a lot of viral illnesses, more than anything it's the body's immune response that determines the severity of the symptoms.
“There's something about influenza that is particularly immunogenic to our bodies and can create these massive cytokine storms and fevers that end up landing kids in the ICU with a sepsis-like picture,” Yont said.
Flu vaccines for kids effective this year
The CDC's Budd said that nearly 90% of the children who died of flu this year were not fully vaccinated. For most kids, this means just one shot per year. But kids younger than age 8 need two doses if they've never received the flu shot before.
Just over 50% of kids got the flu shot this season, slightly lower than 53.3% last year. Preliminary CDC data shows the vaccine is up to 61% effective in keeping kids with flu out of the hospital.
“The vaccine can reduce the risk of a child needing to have a medical visit by about two-thirds,” Budd said. “And it can reduce their risk of hospitalization by about half.”
