| ■ Children swine flu deaths spike in US amid vaccine shortage | 2009.10.31 |
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will release its entire stock of children's Tamiflu antivirals, a top health official said, as the pediatric swine flu toll spiked well above the annual toll for kids from seasonal flu. "Up until now, there have been 114 laboratory-confirmed deaths among children," the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas Frieden, told a press conference on Friday, referring to swine flu. The highest pediatric death toll from seasonal flu in the past three years was 88. Along with the spike in child (A)H1N1 flu deaths, the US has seen "more hospitalizations in people under the age of 65 than in most entire flu seasons," Frieden said. Federal health authorities were releasing the entire US stock of liquid Tamiflu antivirals for children, Frieden said. |