It started with a cold, and then it turned deadly.
The grieving family of Dylan Winnik of West Palm Beach, Fla. is in shock after their 12-year old son died Tuesday from complications related to the flu.
Dylan’s family said cold symptoms developed just a day after the seventh-grader was playing at a birthday party on Sunday, according to a report from Local10 News. By Tuesday, his condition worsened and a neighbor called 911. When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the home, Dylan already had died.
Family member Mike Medwi told the Palm Beach Post that the boy had not gotten a flu shot.
Last Friday, the CDC reported that 30 children have died so far this season from flu-related illness compared to eight at this time last year. Those numbers are expected to rise at Friday’s weekly briefing, with more kids’ flu-related deaths having been reported in the past days.
Dr. Margarita Rohr from NYU Langone Health told Fox News the most common form of flu being reported this season, Influenza A (H3N2), “is particularly worrisome as symptoms tend to escalate rapidly, especially in children and older adults.”
“The short duration time, from the diagnosis of flu with onset of symptoms leading rapidly to death may be attributed to the particular strain of virus we are currently facing,” she said. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]An especially severe flu season might be hitting its peak, but experts expect to see many more Americans treated for the potentially deadly viral infection before it is over.
As Stat reported, last week saw a marked week-over-week increase in the number of hospitalizations associated with a flu diagnosis.
Two weeks ago, an average of 13.7 people were hospitalized per 100,000 Americans, a ratio that jumped to 22.7 the following week.
Still, that number was well short of the peak of the 2014-15 flu season, recognized by officials as one the most severe outbreaks so far this century, when nearly 30 in every 100,000 Americans were in the hospital for flu-related symptoms.
What sets this season apart, however, is the breadth of its reach. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate there have been cases of the virus reported across the entire continental U.S. for the first time since it began its current tracking method 13 years ago.
“There’s lots of flu in lots of places,” said Dan Jernigan, the doctor in charge of the CDC’s influenza division.
He said the research reveals “the first year we’ve had the entire continental U.S. at the same level (of flu activity) at the same time.” – READ MORE
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