by The United States is currently experiencing the deadliest flu season for children in the past 15 years, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday.
A total of 216 children died of the flu during the 2024-25 season, the highest number since the pig flu Pandemie in 2009-10. The previous High was determined a year ago, when there were 207 flu deaths in childhood. This last flu season saw the highest number of deaths in childhood in a non -pop -of -the -part season since the desk started cataloging flu deaths at the age of two decades ago. More than 48,000 children have also been admitted to the hospital with the flu so far this season.
Fortunately, the peak of the flu season is over, but the last death toll for this season will probably continue to grow in the coming months. The last pediatric death of the 2023-24 season was only recorded in the fall.
A factor that probably contributes to the increase in flu -related deaths is the falling vaccination speed for seasonal flu in children. The rates climbed steadily in the years after pig flu, with 288 children killed, but quickly started to fall in the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemie. Five years ago, 64% of the children had their seasonal flu compared to only 49% today.
Flu shots do not necessarily prevent someone from getting the virus and the variance in flu strains can mean that their effectiveness fluctuates from year to year. But it has been shown that vaccines are very effective in defending serious infections and deaths. The CDC estimates that vaccines nearly 10 million cases of flu, 120,000 hospital admissions and 7,900 deaths during the 2023-24 flu season.
That season was classified as ‘moderate’ by government health officials. The person we are currently experiencing is categorized as ‘high seriousness’. So far, this season there have been more than 610,000 flu-related hospital admissions and 26,000 dead, almost as many deaths as there were in the entire season of 2023-24.
The worst of the 2024-25 flu season can be over, but experts see reason to worry about whatever comes in the future. It is unclear whether the vaccination rates for children will continue to fall. The process of deciding how the flu shots of the following season should be formulated was also disturbed.
Usually the Vaccine Advisory Board of the Food and Drug Administration is a meeting with independent experts from all over the world to choose the composition of the vaccine of that year. That meeting was abruptly canceled this year. The FDA released its recommended vacc information on schedule in March, although it did without the import of the external experts. Although there were some worries that the cancellation of the meeting could slow down the production of this year’s vaccine, the agency said that “it has no influence on an impact on the timing or availability of vaccines for the American public.”
