{"id":494677,"date":"2026-02-23T19:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494677\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:20:09","slug":"flu-kills-five-more-children-in-a-week-as-doctors-brace-for-influenza-surge-across-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494677\/","title":{"rendered":"Flu kills five more children in a week as doctors brace for influenza surge across nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five more children have died of complications due to flu<\/a>, bringing the number of child deaths in the U.S. this season to 71.<\/p>\n

The new death toll is only slightly higher than the 2024-2025 flu season<\/a>, which saw a total of 68 child flu deaths<\/a> by February 2025.<\/p>\n

During both seasons, the majority of child deaths have been tied to low vaccination coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Approximately 90 percent of the deaths this year have been in children who were not fully vaccinated against the flu<\/a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the deaths was linked to influenza B, the agency noted. Levels of influenza B, a strain of flu that is more severe in children<\/a>, have been rising in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The number of child flu deaths just rose again. The death toll has risen to 71 since the start of the season last year (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

By Valentine\u2019s Day, it made up just over 45 percent of cases, while influenza A – the majority of flu infections – made up nearly 55 percent.<\/p>\n

In the previous week, influenza B cases made up nearly 33 percent, while influenza A cases were at over 67 percent.<\/p>\n

Doctors have been bracing for rising levels of the strain, which are usually seen in the latter half of America\u2019s flu season. The season typically stretches from October to May.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are going to see some flu B, especially activity over the next few weeks, because we are seeing some percentages that are kind of stuck and not continuing to trickle down,\u201d Dr. Claudia Hoyen of University Hospitals told Cleveland\u2019s FOX 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing, though, that has been a little bit worrisome for us this year is that we are seeing a lot of children with complications from the flu,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Influenza B shares a lot of similarities with influenza A, but can also lead to more seizures, vomiting and diarrhea in children, according to Cleveland Clinic Infectious disease doctor Sherif Mossad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Infection 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

\"Doctors<\/p>\n

Doctors are bracing for a surge of influenza B. The virus is more severe in children (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It may lead to intense pain in the limbs known as viral myositis<\/a>, which can make it hard for children to walk for a few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cInfluenza B is more common with viral myositis,\u201d Dr. Mustafa Bakir, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with OSF HealthCare, explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of last year, just eight percent of cases<\/a> for the week ending on February 15 were influenza B.<\/p>\n

Levels of flu are currently the highest in Oregon, Missouri and Louisiana, although they remain elevated across much of the southern U.S.<\/p>\n

There have been at least 23 million cases, 300,000 hospitalizations and 19,000 deaths so far this season.<\/p>\n

And, numbers for child deaths last flu season are still going up.<\/p>\n

The CDC also reported a new death confirmed during the last flu season, bringing the total number of child deaths up to 290.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five more children have died of complications due to flu, bringing the number of child deaths in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,17521,125480,198518,2770,48193,84,191590],"class_list":{"0":"post-494677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention","11":"tag-child-deaths","12":"tag-child-flu-deaths","13":"tag-children","14":"tag-flu-season","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-influenza-b"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494677","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=494677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}