{"id":470718,"date":"2026-02-12T18:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/470718\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:52:09","slug":"a-new-flu-strain-is-rising-around-the-us-and-its-more-severe-for-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/470718\/","title":{"rendered":"A new flu strain is rising around the US \u2013 and it\u2019s more severe for children"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new flu strain<\/a> is rising in states across the country \u2013 and it\u2019s worse for children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An increasing number of flu samples are coming back positive for highly contagious influenza B<\/a>, according to the California Department of Public Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Influenza B shares a lot of similarities with influenza A<\/a> \u2013 which is responsible for most cases seen since the season\u2019s start last fall \u2013 but can lead to more seizures, vomiting and diarrhea in children, according to Cleveland Clinic Infectious disease doctor Sherif Mossad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also tends to be more common in children, although children aren\u2019t the only group that may suffer worse effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally speaking, older adults are more likely to experience complications from both types of flu viruses,\u201d the National Council on Aging says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An increasing number of tests are coming back positive for influenza B in California. The strain is more serious for children (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The majority of cases each flu season are influenza A, but flu B often surges<\/a> following the strain\u2019s peak in the late-winter months.<\/p>\n

Influenza B made up nearly a quarter of cases tested in nationwide labs during the last week of January, the most recent data<\/a> shared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

The flu season typically peaks between December and February, but runs from October to May.<\/p>\n

UC San Francisco infectious disease specialist Monica Gandhi warned that activity is not over. \u201cThis could lead to a whole new wave of influenza cases,\u201d she told SFGate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Levels of hospitalizations, cases and deaths have been oscillating in recent weeks, according to the \u2019s FluView report.<\/p>\n

Now, seven states are shown with the highest levels of flu activity: Oregon, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee.<\/p>\n

This year has already been historic for flu activity<\/a>. There have been 22 million cases and 12,000 deaths so far, including 60 children.<\/p>\n

Influenza B can also lead to complications such as pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, heart disease, respiratory failure and brain swelling, according to the Children\u2019s Hospital of Orange County<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Typical symptoms include fever, body aches, chills and more gastrointestinal issues than influenza A.<\/p>\n

The best way to protect kids from severe illness is to ensure that they are vaccinated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around 90 percent of those who have died due to the flu this year have been unvaccinated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new flu strain is rising in states across the country \u2013 and it\u2019s worse for children. An…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,191589,48,2770,48193,143271,84,103582,191590],"class_list":{"0":"post-470718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california-department-of-public-health","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-children","12":"tag-flu-season","13":"tag-flu-strain","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-influenza-a","16":"tag-influenza-b"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}