Colorado has confirmed the first pediatric flu death in the state during the respiratory virus season.
The state Health Department said Wednesday that the elementary-age child was from outside the Denver metro area. There is no record that they received this season’s vaccine.
“We send our deepest sympathies to the family as they navigate this heartbreaking loss,” said Hope Shuler, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Last season, Colorado recorded eight children who died from the flu. Five were not vaccinated. Four had no record in a national database that they had been vaccinated. The other was a child under 6 months old, too young to get a flu shot.
This is a year without precedent in more than two decades, with the exception of the year of the H1N1 flu pandemic. That was in 2009 and 2010. Six of the 12 confirmed pediatric deaths that season occurred unusually early, in September 2009.
“The flu is not a cold”
Doctors and public health experts say vaccination offers the best protection, especially as the flu season starts earlier than usual, even though the number of cases is relatively low.
“The flu can be deadly in people who are otherwise healthy,” said Dr. Michelle Barron, an infectious disease physician at UCHealth.
She notes that parents may think that if their child doesn’t have asthma or other problems, they don’t need to get a flu shot. “They do. It’s absolutely something we see happening every year and it’s tragic,” she said.
About 8% of Colorado children ages 6 months to 9 years have received a flu vaccine so far this season, according to the state health department. For those aged 10 to 19, this figure is even lower, around 5%. People 65 and older are the most vaccinated group by age, with about 21% having received the vaccine.
By race and ethnicity, vaccination rates for Hispanic Coloradans are the lowest, at about 3%.
Overall flu vaccination rates are relatively low. Only 9.5% of Colorado residents have received a flu vaccine since the beginning of September. That’s about a percentage point lower than last season.
With the busy holiday season just weeks away and the flu and COVID-19 circulating in increasing numbers in the United States, Barron said now is the perfect time to get vaccinated against both, as well as the RSV respiratory virus.
“The flu is not a cold,” Barron said. “The flu can definitely have cold symptoms, so you’ll have a runny nose and a cough, but the flu will knock you out where you’re at home, you won’t be able to go to work, you won’t be able to go to school, you won’t be able to do the fun things we do in Colorado for a few days. And that’s a big deal, and that’s not even with potential complications.”
Vaccines available
Vaccines for all three viruses are available for free or at low cost at pharmacies, clinics and doctor’s offices across Colorado.
“Prevention is an important thing,” Barron said.
In Colorado, fifty-eight people are now hospitalized with the flu, according to the state health department. That’s about a dozen more than last week and the most since late April during a bad flu season, according to the state dashboard.
Gn Health
