The Norman Transcript

Headlines

Discussion

January 16, 2013

100 kids die of flu yearly

The Associated Press Associated Press

NEW YORK — How bad is this flu season, exactly? Look to the children.

Twenty flu-related deaths have been reported in kids so far this winter, one of the worst tolls this early in the year since the government started keeping track in 2004.

But while such a tally is tragic, that does not mean this year will turn out to be unusually bad. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, and it’s not yet clear the nation will reach that total.

The deaths this year have included a 6-year-old girl in Maine, a 15-year Michigan student who loved robotics, and 6-foot-4 Texas high school senior Max Schwolert, who grew sick in Wisconsin while visiting his grandparents for the holidays.

“He was kind of a gentle giant” whose death has had a huge impact on his hometown of Flower Mound, said Phil Schwolert, the Texas boy’s uncle.

Health officials only started tracking pediatric flu deaths nine years ago, after media reports called attention to children’s deaths. That was in 2003-04 when the primary flu germ was the same dangerous flu bug as the one dominating this year. It also was an earlier than normal flu season.

The government ultimately received reports of 153 flu-related deaths in children, from 40 states, and most of them had occurred by the beginning of January. But the reporting was scattershot. So in October 2004, the government started requiring all states to report flu-related deaths in kids.

For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Headlines
  • Moore Tornado Deadly tornado nearly follows path of ’99 storm

    MOORE — A massive F4 tornado with winds estimated at 200 mph spun through this city Monday afternoon, killing approximately 91 persons and taking a path eerily close to the May 3, 1999, storm that killed 43....

    May 21, 2013 1 Photo

  • dsc_1683.jpg Moore patients, employees accounted for

    MOORE — Patients and staff inside the seriously damaged Moore Medical Center were all accounted for, hospital officials said late Monday....

    May 21, 2013 1 Photo

  • ‘This is it. This is my life’

    MOORE —In the aftermath of a violent tornado ripping through Moore, residents are shocked, dazed and resolute....

    May 21, 2013

  • warren.jpg Theater guests, staff take cover then help others

    MOORE — Before even hearing the massive tornado that ripped through the walls, obliterated the windows and chewed through the Warren Theater in Moore where he works as a team member, Young said he could feel it.

    May 21, 2013 1 Photo

  • Tornado rekindles nightmare storm of 1999

    MOORE — For some residents of Moore, Monday’s events were a reminder of the May 3, 1999, tornado that caused devastation in the same area. Judy Odem, who’s lived in Moore for 40 years, said she learned after the 1999 tornado that she ...

    May 21, 2013

  • Officials vow not to quit looking until everyone is found

    The tornado that killed 24 people and injured at least 100 others in the Moore and Oklahoma City area cut a17 mile long path that started in Newcastle and ended at Lake Stanley Draper. Nine of the dead are children....

    May 22, 2013

  • Norman church serves storm victims

    Journey Church was humming with activity Tuesday morning as hundreds of volunteers worked to organize donated goods for the victims of Monday’s tornado in Moore....

    May 22, 2013

  • Through the field of wreckage

    Again, it was Moore. For the third time in less than 15 years, residents of this city of about 60,000 must mourn their dead, help the living and pick up the pieces of shattered lives that now lay in a field of wreckage....

    May 22, 2013

  • Little Axe seniors celebrate graduation

    Family, friends and faculty set aside grief and concern for Sunday’s and Monday’s tornado devastation Tuesday evening and celebrated the graduation of the Little Axe High School class of 2013....

    May 22, 2013

  • Primrose offers tornado relief

    In the wake of Sunday and Monday’s devastating storms, Primrose Funeral Service and Sunset Memorial Park are offering all services for a funeral or a memorial service and a burial plot at no cost to those that lost a loved one.  “We want ...

    May 22, 2013