Two children under the age of 2 have died from flu complications in Boston, marking the first pediatric flu deaths in the city since 2013. CIDRAP has the news.
Earlier this week, the CDC had stated nine pediatric deaths from the flu had been recorded so far in the 2025-26 flu season. These two deaths push that number up. Boston reported a “126% increase in confirmed flu cases” between December 14 and December 27. Massachusetts alone has reported four of the pediatric flu deaths so far this season.
South Carolina health officials also reported nine flu-associated deaths in the last week of December, which raises the state-wide total to 16 deaths so far this season. Around 5,000 people have died of the flu so far this season in total, according to CDC estimates, which classes this flu season as “moderately severe” thus far.
The influenza A(H3N2) strain called subclade K has led to an uptick in case numbers. Experts “warned that subclade K was a mismatch for the current influenza vaccines, but recent preprint papers…suggest the current vaccine does elicit antibodies, and should provide at least some protection against infection and severe illness.”
