Low Vaccination Rates Spur Flu Deaths in Kids

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - During the 2003-2004 influenza season, 153 influenza-associated deaths among children were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a new study. Only 16 percent of those over 6 months of age had been vaccinated against the disease.

Because of reports of sporadic cases of fatal influenza in children, the CDC, beginning in December 2003, requested that health departments report such deaths that were confirmed by laboratory tests. Dr. Niranjan Bhat and colleagues describe the characteristics of those fatalities in this week's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

"It is likely that, during the 2003-2004 season, more deaths among children were associated with influenza than with any other currently vaccine-preventable disease in the United States," the authors report.

Forty percent occurred in patients younger than 2 years of age, their paper indicates, and 65 percent occurred in those younger than 5 years of age. They estimate the influenza-related mortality among children that season to be 0.21 deaths per 100,000.

The data show that 47 percent of victims had no documented medical disorders. Thirty-three percent had high-risk medical conditions for which the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends influenza vaccine. Only 26 percent of this latter group had been vaccinated.

Twenty percent had other chronic medical conditions, including neurologic or neuromuscular disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, or upper respiratory abnormalities.

Children 6 months of age or younger, for whom vaccination is not approved, had the highest mortality rate of any age group (0.88 per 100,000), "highlighting the importance of ACIP recommendations that promote influenza vaccination of pregnant women and of all household contacts and caregivers of children younger than 6 months of age."

Based on these findings, Bhat's team recommends that "increased influenza-vaccine coverage and early identification and effective treatment of influenza among children should be key goals."

SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, December 15, 2005.