Ten more pediatric flu deaths were reported Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bringing the total for the 2024-’25 flu season to 198 — just shy of last season’s record-high of 207 child fatalities.
The first flu season to be categorized as “high severity” since 2017-’18 continues its decline from February’s peak activity, with nationwide outpatient respiratory illness below baseline. Just one of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) regions remains above its baseline for activity.
But the CDC warns that the flu season is not over and continues to recommend that everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot now instead of waiting for the next flu season this fall. Protection from the flu vaccine typically begins two weeks after administration.
The CDC reported Friday that 48.7% of the U.S. pediatric population has gotten a flu shot this season.
Influenza-related hospitalization rates for the week ending April 11 fell to 0.9 per 100,000 population, but the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network reports that the rate seen during the fifth and sixth weeks of the year tied the highest peak weekly rate seen across all seasons since 2010, at 13.6 per 100,000. The cumulative hospitalization rate of 125.6 per 100,000 is also the highest since 2010.
Children ages 0-4 years have seen a cumulative hospitalization rate of 102.5 per 100,000 this flu season, the third-highest rate for a demographic group after adults 65-plus (395.5) and adults 50-64 (146.9).
The CDC estimates this flu season has seen 46 million illnesses, 600,000 hospitalizations and 26,000 deaths across all age groups.
Almost 500 more pertussis cases
Pertussis or whooping cough continues to spread across the nation, with reports this week of six cases confirmed at two North Carolina schools and one at a Texas high school. Provisional data from the CDC reports 8,064 cases in the U.S. this year as of April 12, up from the previous week’s total of 7,586.
No new pediatric pertussis deaths were reported this week. The Louisiana Office of the Surgeon General confirmed on March 27 that two infants died of whooping cough within the previous six months. The state’s last infant death due to pertussis was in 2018.
Vaccination is the best prevention against whooping cough. The immunization schedule calls for the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine to be given at 2 months of age. Subsequent doses are given at 4 months and 6 months, with boosters at 15-18 months and 4-6 years. A tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap) booster is recommended at 11-12 years old.
To prevent adult transmission to babies, people in close contact with infants younger than 1 year should get a booster, and pregnant people should get the vaccine during the third trimester.
Pertussis cases in the U.S. jumped by more than 400% from 2023 to 2024.
COVID, RSV at low levels
As of Friday, the CDC categorizes all respiratory illness activity in the U.S. as low. That includes flu, COVID-19, RSV and other illnesses including the common cold.
For the week ending April 12, COVID-19 diagnoses were found in 0.5% of all emergency department visits and 0.7% of all deaths, according to the CDC. COVID hospitalizations have been steadily declining since hitting a winter peak of 4.2 per 100,000 population in the first week of January, and were last reported at 1.7 per 100,000 on March 29.
Using surveillance data and modeling, the CDC estimates that 28,000 to 47,000 U.S. deaths from Oct. 1, 2024, through April 12 can be attributed to COVID-19. For comparison, COVID was an underlying or contributing cause of death in the U.S. for 463,267 people in 2021 and 385,676 people in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
RSV hospitalizations are low and decreasing across the country, representing just 0.1% of emergency department visits reported to the CDC for the week ending April 5. RSV test positivity is on the decline, reaching 2.5% as of April 18.
