Health

Deadliest week yet for children with flu, CDC reports

It was the deadliest week yet for children with flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 22 more children have died from complications from influenza.

A total of 84 children have died from flu so far this season.

Flu remains widespread in 48 states, according to the CDC. Health officials on Friday said about one of every 13 visits to the doctor last week was for fever, cough and other symptoms of the flu.

This year's flu vaccines are preventing about 36 percent of flu cases in vaccinated people but are working better, at a rate of about 59 percent , in young children, the CDC reported Thursday.

The vaccines are less effective, about 25%, at preventing illnesses caused by the dominant virus behind this year's epidemic, the report said.

H3N2 is the strain of flu that has been seen most this season, and it has proven to be a deadly strain.

For links to each state's health department, where localized information about influenza can be found, click here. Each website has a listing called "Surveillance Reports," or "Surveillance Maps," with the week's report to give you the latest information.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that 79 people have been confirmed dead in Georgia, 3 of them children.

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