The worst flu season in a decade continues to take a grim toll, with 22 more child deaths reported Friday, bringing the total to 84.
The latest update by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also shows that the flu remained widespread in 48 states.
The newly listed child deaths are the most reported in any week this harsh flu season, but they occurred over several weeks, the report said. The overall count of 84 child deaths nearly matches the 86 reported by this time in 2015, during a severe season that ended up killing 148 children, said CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund.
An estimated 56,000 people, mostly older adults, died that year. The CDC does not keep exact counts of adult flu deaths, but reports that nearly 10% of all deaths in the country in mid-February were due to influenza and pneumonia. Flu hospitalization rates among adults over age 50 also remained high.
Friday's report showed one inkling of hope: the rate at which people visited doctors for flu-like illness stopped rising, after reaching peaks not seen since the swine flu pandemic of 2009. Such visits made up 7.5% of trips to doctors, down slightly from 7.7% the week before.
"It would be too early to say that we’ve peaked," Nordlund said. "We need to see more data, but that is something we are definitely hopeful for."
In a press conference Thursday about flu vaccines, acting CDC director Anne Schuchat said this flu season is far from over, even after 12 weeks of unusually persistent coast-to-coast misery.
“This flu season continues to be extremely challenging and intense, with very high levels of office visits for flu and hospitalization rates, all indications that flu activity is high and likely to continue for several more weeks,” she said.
This year's flu vaccines are preventing about 36% of flu cases in vaccinated people but are working better, at a rate of about 59%, in young children, the CDC reported Thursday. The vaccines are less effective, about 25%, at preventing illnesses caused by the dominant virus behind this year's epidemic, the report said.
But most of the children who have died this year have not been vaccinated, the report said. That also has been true for children who died in previous years, according to a study published this week.
