Savvy Aunties, a new CDC report finds that influenza can be serious, even for healthy kids! Every year we hear stories of kids that have died from flu because of its complications but now a new sobering report from CDC says that it can happen to even healthy children.

In the past it was believed those children who were at risk for death from flu complications, such as pneumonia, were those who had other high-risk medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, certain types of cancer, congenital heart defects or neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy or epilepsy.

However researchers found that 43 percent of the children who died were otherwise healthy and didn't have these high-risk medical conditions. These healthy children were also more likely to die before getting to the hospital probably because children with other medical conditions are usually taken to healthcare providers right away when they get sick.

This report highlights for Savvy Aunties and parents alike the importance of taking flu just as seriously in healthy children as children who are more medically fragile due to a high-risk condition.  

The study also revealed that most had not gotten vaccinated for influenza, which could have prevented these needless tragedies. The CDC recommends that all children six months or older get the flu vaccine every year. Babies younger than six months get protection from their moms who should have been vaccinated during pregnancy, because pregnant women are also at risk for serious complications from influenza.  

Remember you CANNOT get the flu from the vaccine even though you may feel a little ill as your body mounts its immune response or get some soreness at the site of the injection. And even if some years we find that the vaccine is not a perfect match for that strain that particular year, it can still give you some cross immunity. That means that you will not get as sick and you have less of a chance of getting the fatal pneumonia complication if you get exposed to the influenza virus.

Be savvy... it’s true an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure!

Dr. Leigh Vinocur is a board certified emergency physician and national spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians. Currently she is serving on faculty as an Adjunct Assistant Professor, at Louisiana State University Health Science Center, School of Medicine in Shreveport, Louisiana. For more on Dr. Vinocur visit www.drleigh.com.

Published: November 13, 2013