Rise of pediatric flu cases is sending more children to the hospital

- ADVERTISEMENT -

For nearly two weeks, Rondi Bishop, 40, was quarantined with her husband in a room at Seattle Children’s Hospital as they watched the flu ravage their son’s body.

It was a situation they never could have predicted. Their otherwise happy and healthy son, Elliot, who rarely missed a day of school, suddenly had to be airlifted to the hospital for treatment. As his condition worsened, doctors stepped in with treatments for sepsis, renal complications and severe breathing difficulties.

She recalled the horror, panic and fear she felt watching her son brought back to life after he coded.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

“This flu season was life-changing for us,” she said. “It was scary. There was so many machines he was hooked up to. At one point, he was on 11 different IVs.”

After falling ill in January, Elliot is home and nearly healthy again. The Bishop family is just one of many across the country who have struggled amid the worst flu season in years, one that has been particularly bad for children.

Hospitals across the country have reported an increase in pediatric flu cases this season, with many children experiencing severe complications such as pneumonia, dehydration and organ failure. Hospital admissions for flu in children ages 5 to 17 increased by 145 percent, from 959 on Jan. 4 to 2,348 on Feb. 1, according to an analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Seasonal flu remains elevated nationally but has decreased for the past two weeks. Coronavirus is declining nationally but is still elevated in some parts of the country, according to federal health data.

At least 86 children had died of the flu as of Feb. 15, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. In the general population, the CDC estimates that least 430,000 children and adults were hospitalized for flu between Oct. 1 and Feb. 14, and those numbers are expected to climb as flu levels remain elevated. Last year’s flu season had 470,000 influenza-related hospitalizations, the CDC estimated.

Anita K. Patel, a pediatric critical-care doctor at Children’s National Hospital in D.C., said this is the worst flu season she has seen in more than a decade. Most children recover from the flu, but getting infected can sometimes result in long-term or debilitating side effects that many people do not consider.

“Death is obviously the most severe outcome, but there is a huge spectrum between well and not well,” Patel said. “The flu can take a previously healthy kid and land them on a ventilator.”

Doctors say early symptoms like dehydration or difficulty breathing should not be ignored, as they can indicate a more severe infection.

Patel added that while cases at her hospital have started to decline, the tail end of this flu season could last a few more months.

– – –

Vaccine hesitancy, vaccine effectiveness

Despite public health recommendations, flu vaccination rates among children have been declining in recent years. Misinformation, distrust and a perception that the flu is not a serious illness have contributed to hesitancy among parents. Pediatricians warn that lower vaccination rates can lead to more severe outbreaks, putting vaccinated and unvaccinated children at risk of complications and hospitalizations.

This year, nearly 46 percent of children received a flu vaccine, compared with 51 percent at the same point last season, according to the CDC.

The decline in vaccination rates has been influenced by a growing wave of vaccine hesitancy, fueled partly by federal officials such as anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was confirmed as the nation’s top health leader in February. Just two weeks after Kennedy took the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration canceled a vaccine meeting usually held each March as part of the public process to select the makeup of the next winter’s flu vaccine.

Public health experts say Kennedy’s platform contributes to a climate of fear surrounding vaccine safety, leading many parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children and potentially worsening the rate of flu infections.

“The cancellation of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting is alarming. We are in the middle of one of the worst flu seasons in years, and children are being hospitalized at concerning rates,” Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.

Vaccines may not prevent someone from becoming infected with the flu, but experts say they can significantly reduce the risk of developing severe symptoms or illness that would require hospitalization.

But flu vaccine effectiveness varies each season, and some experts say this year’s shot may have been a poor match for the most virulent strains. On average, the flu vaccine is about 50 percent effective each year.

Despite Elliot’s hospitalization, Bishop said she would not choose to vaccinate herself or her family against the flu in the future.

“No we have NEVER done flu shots and have been fine,” she said in a text to The Washington Post.

Joelle Classen from Caldwell, New Jersey, rushed to the emergency room when her 5-year-old and 1-year-old both spiked fevers of 105 degrees and began vomiting.

Classen said she told the medical staff to test them for “everything” because of the severity of the symptoms. Seeing her boys suffer, she thought to herself: “This is insanity. What is even happening?”

Both of Classen’s sons were diagnosed with the flu, but her 5-year-old was hospitalized for a few days to monitor his vitals after becoming severely dehydrated and vomiting blood.

Neither of her children were vaccinated.

“I feel like the flu vaccine is a gamble,” Classen said in a text message to The Post. “The doctor told me that they were having kids getting admitted who had gotten the vaccine.”

Preliminary estimates from the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report about vaccine effectiveness show that children and teens who got a flu shot were up to 60 percent less likely to have to see a doctor because of sickness with flu and up to 78 percent less likely to be hospitalized with flu.

The report also found that about 13 percent of children who died of this year’s seasonal flu as of Feb. 8 – about nine of 68 deaths – had influenza-associated encephalitis, a rare but serious neurological complication.

The CDC recommends that children older than 6 months receive an annual flu shot.

“If you have had the flu vaccine, your body is going to be armed from the beginning to fight that infection better and faster … regardless of the effectiveness of that vaccine,” said Jennifer L. Brull, a family physician in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Brull said it is not uncommon to see the flu spike during the first few months of the year, but the degree of the surge was most worrisome this flu season.

“The last really bad season was pre-pandemic,” said Brull. “Is this a year like none we have seen before? No. But is it a year like last year? No, it’s not.”

Related posts:

Departments of Health and Consumer Affairs remind New Yorkers: Fever, headache, cough,body aches… use your sick leave, and stay home if you have the flu Flu practically vanished last year. Now doctors are bracing for potential ‘twindemic’ of flu and covid-19 spikes Do they mask? Are they eating out? How covid experts like Dr. Ashish Jha are living now What’s the difference between RSV, the flu and covid-19?