Hard this year flu season – The most intense in 15 years – Health managers in the United States try to understand if it has triggered an increase in a rare but potentially fatal cerebral complication in children.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 19,000 people have died of the flu so far this winter, including 86 children. On Thursday, the CDC reported that at least nine of these children underwent brain complications, and asked the state health services to help investigate if there are other cases of this type.
There are good news: the CDC has also indicated that this year’s flu vaccines are doing a fairly good job preventing the hospitalization of the flu – among the 45% of Americans who were vaccinated. But it comes one day after the Trump administration added to the rowing uncertainty of government health agencies by Cancel an expert meeting Who are supposed to help choose the recipe for the flu vaccine next winter.
However, it is not too late to be vaccinated this year: “If you have not yet obtained your flu vaccine, obtain it because we still see a circulation of the influenza raised in most of the country,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The effectiveness of the flu vaccine varies from year to year. Although it is not excellent in blocking infections, the main role of the vaccine “is to keep you outside the hospital and keep you alive,” said Dr. William Schaffner, vaccination expert at Vanderbilt University.
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Preliminary CDC data published Thursday found that children who had obtained this year’s vaccine were between 64 by CEBT and 78% less likely to be hospitalized than their non -vaccinated counterparts, and adults were 41% to 55% less likely to be hospitalized.
What about these brain complications? Earlier this month, health services and state health have warned doctors to monitor patients with influenza for children with crises, hallucinations or other signs of “encephalopathy or encephalitis associated with flu”-and a more severe subtype called “acute necrotic encephalopathy”. Encephalitis is brain inflammation.
On Thursday, the CDC published an analysis of 1,840 deaths of the child flu since 2010, finding 166 with these neurological complications. Most were not vaccinated. But the agency concluded that it is not clear if the nine deaths of this year with these complications – four of which had the worst subtype – mark an increase.
There is no regular monitoring of these neurological complications, which makes it difficult to search for responses. In California, Dr. Keith Van Haren of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health said earlier this month that he had learned about 15 cases related to the flu of this severe subtype of doctors in the country and “we are aware or more cases that can also meet the criteria”. He didn’t say how many people died.
O’Leary, with the Academy of Pediatricians, said that parents must remember that this complication is rare – the advice remains to ask for a doctor each time a child with flu has unusual symptoms or concerning symptoms, such as laborious breathing.
Doctors see more neurological complications during gravel influenza seasons – they can be linked to specific flu – and survivors may have current convulsions or other persistent problems, he said.
Meanwhile, vaccines are already preparing for the brewing process for next months. An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration was supposed to meet on March 13 to help choose the influenza strains to include, but with the cancellation of this meeting, it is not clear if the government will decide itself.
“We have historically worked very hard to obtain transparency around all these discussions on vaccines,” said O’Leary, who said it was important for the public to understand what is happening in making decisions about the composition of influenza vaccines and other vaccine recommendations.
“The FDA will release its recommendations to manufacturers in time for the updated vaccines to be available for the 2025-2026 flu season,” said Andrew Nixon, director of communications for the Ministry of Health and Social Services, in an email.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press