Health officials in the D.C. region say this year’s flu season — with the deaths of six children reported in Maryland and Virginia — has been especially severe.
“We’ve had higher peaks of influenza over the last few weeks than we’ve had in a decade,” Sean O’Donnell, deputy chief for public health with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, told WTOP.
Statewide, there were more than 1,000 hospitalizations in Maryland, O’Donnell said.
“In previous years, the highest number we’ve gotten in a weekly total has been under 600,” he said.
However, O’Donnell said, the latest data available was more positive: “We’re already seeing those numbers start to come down, fortunately.”
O’Donnell said the spike in reported cases and fatalities came relatively late in the flu season — but he pointed out flu season can last past May and into June.
This year, he said, “it really came on at a later point and a higher peak than what we’ve seen in past years”
On Friday, Prince George’s County Schools Superintendent Millard House II reported two students had died of flu-related illnesses. The state’s most recent data from the Department of Health reported a single pediatric fatality.
In Virginia, there have been four pediatric deaths related to the flu. Data on the Virginia Department of Health’s website shows two of those deaths occurred in what the department lists as the “Eastern Health Region,” and one each occurred in the “Central” and “Northern” regions.
The Northern Virginia Health region includes Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William counties.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed 114 pediatric deaths tied to the flu.
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