CDC Flu Warning: 115 Children In U.S. Died Last Year From Influenza

Flu season is quickly approaching and the CDC is using this time to reveal a scary statistic, last year 115 U.S. children and teens died from influenza.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging parents with children six months and older to have the shot administered. According to the report of the 74 deaths in children over age six months who died between September 2010 and August 2011 only a quarter of those children had been vaccinated.

The CDC warns that even healthy children can contract the flu, in fact the organizations Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report which was released on Thursday shows that nearly half of the children who died from the flu over the last flu season were healthy before the virus struck.

The study also shows that of the 57 children who had medical conditions and died more than half had a neurological disorder, 30% had pulmonary disease and 25% had a chromosome or genetic disorder. In 19% percent of all childhood deaths brought on by flu 19 percent had congenital heart or other cardiac diseases.

The study also revealed another scary statistic, from the 94 children who died in hospitals only half were given antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu, the exact type of immediate treatment the CDC recommends for patients with “severe flu symptoms.”

The CDC has been tracking pediatric flu deaths since 2004 with a low in 2005-2006 of 46 deaths and a high of 282 in 2009 through 2010.

Even if you don’t believe in vaccinations for whatever reason, be sure to have your children checked by a doctor if they begin to show flu type symptoms.