Dozens of Children have Died from Flu Outbreak in U.S.

By Liz Szabo. Flu is now widespread in 46 states and has killed 26 children, health officials said today.

“This year is shaping up to be a bad one, particularly for people 65 and older,” says Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children younger than 5 are also at high risk of hospitalization, particularly babies under 6 months, who are too young to be vaccinated.

Flu is hitting the USA especially hard this year for two reasons.

First, the dominant flu strain in circulation is H3N2, a type that tends to cause twice as many hospitalizations and deaths as other strains of flu, Frieden says. Hospitalization rates have risen to 92 per 100,000 people, compared with 52 hospitalizations per 100,000 in a typical year. (Read more the story “26 Children Have Died From Flu” HERE)

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19 Measles Cases have been Tied to Trips to Disneyland

By Amy Taxin. Nineteen people from three states who visited Disney theme parks in California last month have now fallen ill with measles, health officials said Friday.

The patients all visited Disneyland or Disney California Adventure between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20, the California Department of Public Health and the Orange County Health Agency said.

Sixteen of the cases were in California, two in Utah, and one is in Colorado, officials said.

Officials in California said that of the 16 cases in the state they have only verified that two were fully vaccinated against the disease. Some were partially vaccinated and at least two were too young to be vaccinated. (Read more from this story HERE)

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