Flu Toll Figures Highlight Need for Vaccination of Children (Source: The Globe and Mail)
From the article:
At least 500 Canadian children were put in hospital after falling seriously ill with influenza last year, and three of them died, according to newly published data.
The data, which were collected at only nine pediatric hospitals, graphically demonstrate the toll that the flu is taking on children and underscore why it is recommended that all children over the age of six months should receive the flu vaccine…
"Influenza causes significant illness in healthy young children… We need better strategies to improve the immunization of children."
In September, the Canadian Pediatric Society recommended that influenza should be added to the list of routine childhood vaccinations. And in November, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, a blue-ribbon panel of scientists, made the same recommendation, backed up by the statement that the rate at which infants must be put in hospital for treatment of influenza is roughly equal to the rate among adults over the age of 65.