Bacterial Co-Infections And Child Flu Deaths

 

# 2369

 

 

Maryn McKenna, a contributing writer for CIDRAP, has a detailed article tonight on the growing incidence of childhood flu deaths attributed to a Staphylococcus aureus co-infection. 

 

 

The study, entitled:

 

Influenza-Associated Pediatric Mortality in the United States: Increase of Staphylococcus aureus Coinfection

Lyn Finelli, DrPH^a, Anthony Fiore, MD^a, Rosaline Dhara, MPH^a, Lynnette Brammer, MPH^a, David K. Shay, MD^a, Laurie Kamimoto, MD^a, Alicia Fry, MD^a, Jeffrey Hageman, MPH^b, Rachel Gorwitz, MD^b, Joseph Bresee, MD^a and Timothy Uyeki, MD^a

 

 

appears in this month's (October 2008) edition of Pediatrics, the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

 

 

I've only posted the opening paragraphs to Maryn's story.  It is well worth following the links to read it in its entirety. 

 

 

 

Bacterial coinfections boosting child flu deaths

 

Maryn McKenna Contributing Writer

Oct 7, 2008 (CIDRAP News) – The number of children who have died from a combination of influenza infection and bacterial pneumonia—in many cases due to the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)—has risen sharply over the past few years, federal epidemiologists say in a new report that urges flu shots as a preventative.

 

 

Overall, the researchers say, child deaths from influenza are relatively uncommon. There were 166 between autumn 2004 and spring 2007, according to a new national reporting system, only a few more than the 153 that occurred in the harsh 2003-04 flu season and prompted the reporting system's founding. But child deaths from flu are rising, and serious complications from bacterial infections such as MRSA are playing a much larger role.

 

 

Staph infection is difficult to prevent: The bacterium lives on the skin and in the nostrils and causes disease unpredictably. But "you can't have this overwhelming catastrophic complication without also having the flu, so if you can prevent the flu, you can prevent the coinfection," Lyn Finelli, DrPH, chief of influenza surveillance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in an interview.

 

(Continue Reading . . .)

 

 

 

 

 

Maryn McKenna, is the author of Beating Back The Devil, and editor of the Superbug (MRSA) blog,  and is one of the most respected science writers in the the business.