More U.S. children have died this flu season than at any time since the swine flu pandemic 15 years ago with a record amount of flu-related deaths and hospitalizations in some states including Minnesota.
The 216 national pediatric deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eclipse the 207 reported last year. It's the most since the 2009-2010 H1N1 global flu pandemic.
The biggest spike in flu activity started in late December according to Minnesota Department of Health Epidemiologist Supervisor Melissa McMahon who oversees the influenza surveillance programs. The good news is that season is now winding down.
"Record-breaking spikes in pretty much every surveillance program that we use to determine flu activity," McMahon explained. "So among outpatients or people just at clinics, among hospitalizations, among deaths, you know, everything really spiked and stayed high for a few weeks. And then and then started slowly dropping off until until now when we're down to very, very little activity."
Minnesota also had four pediatric deaths, matching last year's total but overall, it's a startlingly high number, given that the flu season is still going on. The final pediatric death tally for the 2023-2024 flu season wasn't counted until autumn.
“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,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"Typically our pediatric deaths are not immunized," says McMahon. "Typically, they are children who have preexisting medical conditions that would put them at higher risk."
There were 7,500 flu hospitalizations in Minnesota alone, since the end of September.
McMahon says flu activity was low headed into the Christmas holiday - and then there was a spike.
"It's usually a smoother incline. Usually we can tell that influenza is going around before Christmas and then everyone brings it to Christmas and shares it," she said. Or whichever holiday it is, Thanksgiving, something else. So for the activity to be quite low, and really spike after kind of that third week of December was unusual."
McMahon says there's been a drop in the amount of people getting their annual flu vaccine as well. The flu vaccination rate for U.S. children has plummeted from about 64% five years ago to 49% this season.
"But a lot of people have gone many, many years without getting influenza, which kind of just lowers the general overall immunity," she explained. "You know, every strain can be a little bit different, and they do change from year to year. But having a strain of influenza the year before or being immunized will provide you a little bit of protection, even if the strains don't match."
Flu vaccinations may not prevent people from coming down with symptoms, but research shows they are highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
CDC calls this flu season "highly severe"
CDC officials have described it as “ highly severe,” and estimate that so far there have been at least 47 million illnesses, 610,000 hospitalizations and 26,000 deaths this season.
CDC officials have information about underlying conditions on nearly 5,200 adults who were hospitalized with flu this season, and 95% had at least one existing health problem. But among 2,000 hospitalized children with more detailed health information, only about 53% had an underlying condition — including asthma and obesity.
The CDC report did not say how many of the children who died were vaccinated. The agency did not make an expert available to talk about the flu season.
The good news is that flu indicators have been waning since February, and last week all 50 states were reporting low or minimal flu activity.
The season has seen more of a mix of flu strain circulating than in many other years, with two different Type A strains — H1N1 and H3N2 — causing a lot of infections. But CDC data released earlier this year suggested flu shots were doing a pretty good job at preventing deaths and hospitalizations.
The CDC continues to recommend that everyone ages 6 months and older get an annual flu vaccine.
Childhood vaccinations in general have been declining, driven by online misinformation and the political schism that emerged around COVID-19 vaccines. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also echoed some of the rhetoric of antivaccine activists since taking over as the nation's health secretary.
But there may be other reasons fewer children got flu shots this year, O'Leary said.
Many pediatricians offices are understaffed and are not holding as many after-hours vaccination clinics as in the past. Also, more Americans are getting their vaccinations at pharmacies, but some drugstores don’t vaccinate children, he said.
”My hope is that this season will be a bit of wake up call for folks that we actually do need to vaccinate our kids against influenza,” O’Leary said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.