New reports from the CDC provide detail on the 2024-25 flu season, which was “the deadliest flu season for U.S. children in more than a decade.” CIDRAP has the news.
One of the reports analyzed data from the Influenza-Associated Pediatric Mortality Surveillance System, “which collects reports on pediatric flu deaths from state and local health departments.” The 280 children who died with flu from September 2024 through September 2025 represented “a national rate of 3.8 deaths per 1 million children. The median age at time of death was 7 years, and 61% of deaths occurred in children under the age of 9 years. The influenza-associated mortality rate was highest overall in infants under 6 months of age (11.1 per 1 million), higher among girls (4.5) than boys (3.1). Among racial and ethnic groups, Black children (5.8) had the highest mortality rate.”
Influenza A viruses were associated with a vast majority (86%) of the deaths. 148 of the 262 children with available medical histories had “at least one reported underlying medical condition, with neurologic conditions the most frequently reported (93; 63%). Among the 218 children with available data on clinical complications before death, the most common complication was sepsis (108; 50%), followed by pneumonia (82; 38%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (60; 28%), seizures (53; 24%), and encephalopathy or encephalitis (40; 18%).” 89% of the 208 children with vaccine information available had not been vaccinated against flu.
Another report “analyzed case reports on deaths among children from a severe and deadly form of influenza-associated encephalopathy (IAE) called acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE).” Of the 109 patients with IAE studied, “97 (89%) had influenza A, and 58 (55%) of 106 children with medical histories had no underlying medical conditions. Neurologic symptoms commenced a median of 2 days after illness onset.” Only “15 (16%) IAE and 4 (13%) ANE patients had received one or more doses of the 2024-25 flu vaccine more than 2 weeks before illness onset.”
