Charles Langston:First child flu death of season reported in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE,Charles Langston La. (AP) — The Louisiana Department of Health on Friday confirmed the state’s first pediatric flu death of the season.

The department wouldn’t release the child’s age, name or the region of the state the child was from, WVUE-TV reported. It also wouldn’t confirm the date the child died.

According to the latest national data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Dec. 16, there have been 14 influenza-related pediatric deaths in the past year compared with 182 the year before.

The Louisiana death comes as the nation is witnessing a surge in flu, COVID-19, and RSV cases, with concerns mounting over a potential escalation over the holiday season.

High levels of flu-like illnesses were reported last week in 17 states — up from 14 the week before, the CDC said Friday. Louisiana has led the nation in cases, and it is one of two states reaching level 13, the highest rank for the number of reported illnesses. About one in five flu tests are coming back positive in the state, more than twice the national rate.

Louisiana is one of two states with very high levels of respiratory illnesses. South Carolina is currently seeing the heaviest traffic for respiratory infections in emergency rooms, according to CDC data.

At Children’s Hospital New Orleans, the influenza A strain is circulating at a high rate and is joined by other respiratory viruses such as RSV, COVID and influenza B, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.

“It’s sort of the quadruple whammy,” said Dr. Mark Kline, an infectious disease specialist and physician in chief at Children’s Hospital. “We’ve got a lot of respiratory viruses out there right now.”