- FRIDAY, Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) — Richard Kanowitz's 4-year-old
daughter, Amanda, died of the flu on March 1, 2004, barely 72 hours after
she first complained of feeling ill.
Amanda came home from preschool on a Friday afternoon with a slight
cough and fever, her father recalled. Her symptoms progressed slowly over
the weekend and, by Sunday, she was sluggish, still feverish and now
vomiting. The pediatrician said there were multiple viruses circulating
and advised the parents to just keep her hydrated.
They did, but on Monday morning, Kanowitz went to wake Amanda, only to
find that she had died during the night.
Amanda had not been vaccinated against influenza — U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention guidelines at the time only recommended
that children aged 6 months to 23 months be inoculated. “She didn't fall
within the guidelines, so we didn't vaccinate her,” Kanowitz said. “We
were unaware how serious influenza is, that it kills healthy
children.”
Thanks partly to Kanowitz, who went on to found a group known as
Families Fighting Flu, CDC recommendations now urge that all children aged
6 months to 19 years be vaccinated.
Pregnant women are also urged to get the flu shot, not only because
they are at higher risk for flu-related complications, but because their
vaccinations will also benefit their babies. Infants under 6 months have
the highest rate of hospitalization from the flu among children. Despite
this hard fact, only 20 percent of currently pregnant women recently
surveyed said they planned to be vaccinated this season.
Kanowitz and his wife are now religious about vaccinating their two
other children, aged 19 months and 6 years. “The best way that we could
have had Amanda here today was to get her vaccinated,” he said. “It is the
single most important thing parents can do to protect themselves and their
children.”
“Flu is a killer, no question,” said Dr. John Treanor, a professor of
medicine and of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester
Medical Center in New York. “And even though we usually think about flu as
being a killer of old people or those with chronic disease, which it is,
we've also become more aware of deaths in young children.”
“Most of the kids who die of the flu were not vaccinated, and only
about half of them have the kind of high-risk conditions that we normally
target vaccine for,” Treanor said.
As of June 14, 2008, the CDC has received reports of 83 flu-related
deaths in children during the 2007-08 flu season. Seventy-six children
died during the previous season, and 46 in the 2005-06 season.
The high mortality rate during the past two flu seasons may have been
due to a poor match between circulating flu strains and those included in
the vaccine, which is updated every year.
Officials are predicting that this year's vaccine will be a better
match and in plentiful supply.
Each year, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized due to
complications from the flu, and 36,000 die, often from high-risk groups
such as the elderly and those with chronic health issues.
Although the CDC recommends that anyone who wants to reduce their odds
of getting the flu be vaccinated, priority groups include children aged 6
months to 19 years; pregnant women; people aged 50 and older; people of
any age with chronic medical conditions; those who live in nursing homes
and other long-term care facilities; and those at high risk for
flu-related complications such as health-care workers, household contacts
of people at high risk for complications, and household contacts and
out-of-home caregivers of children under 6 months (who are too young to be
vaccinated).
According to the CDC, flu season varies somewhat each year but can
start as early as October, usually peaking in January or after and even as
late as March.
“It's hard to say, but in a typical year, we see the first cases
usually around December, and things start to pick up when kids go back to
school after the Christmas holidays,” Treanor said. “Maybe if we could
stamp it out in kids, it wouldn't spread to adults.”
More information
Visit Families Fighting Flu for more on where to get a flu
shot.
Keep the Flu at Bay This Winter
Experts say it boils down to hygiene, for the most part, so these tips
should lower your risk of infection:
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