The current flu season is shaping up to be a severe one for children.
So far this season, 47 kids and teens have died from the flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday — a worrisome toll that experts say puts the U.S. on track with what was seen last flu season, a particularly bad one for children that ended with 183 pediatric deaths reported.
“We are probably going to at least meet or exceed that,” said Dr. Andi Shane, head of pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “We are seeing quite a notable season in terms of deaths.”
The increase in pediatric deaths comes amid an apparent slowdown in flu activity.
On Friday, the CDC reported that for a second week in a row, the number of people hospitalized for the flu has decreased slightly.
Still, the virus continues to circulate at “elevated” levels across most of the country, and the agency warned that it is too soon to say the season has peaked as it continues to watch for another possible rise in spread.
An estimated 180,000 people have been hospitalized so far this season, and 11,000 people have died.
Flu A, particularly H1N1, accounts for the majority of cases, though flu B, which is often more severe in children, is also being reported.
Flu symptoms doctors are seeing in kids this season
Dr. Kali Broussard, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana, said that the majority of children she is seeing with flu have high fevers, of 103 or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, for up to a week.
“This year, it’s really the prolonged fevers, dehydration and poor appetite that seem to be getting the best of kids,” Broussard said.
Children may also experience a sore throat, runny nose, chills and extreme body aches, said Samia Kadri, a lead family nurse practitioner at Banner Urgent Care in Phoenix, Arizona.
“Some are coming in with one or two of those symptoms. Some are coming in with all of those symptoms,”…
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