The harsh influenza season has a brain -worried health officials …

Washington (AP) – Hard Influenza Season This year – most intense in 15 years -Federal health effect that tries to understand if it has aroused an increase in rare brain complication, but can endanger life in children.

Centers for disease control and prevention estimate 19,000 people died from influenza until this winter, including 86 children. On Thursday, the CDC reported at least nine of those children experienced brain complications and asked the state health departments to help investigate if there are several such cases.

There are some good news: CDC has reported that Photos of the flu this year Do a pretty good job, preventing hospitalization from the flu – among the 45% of the Americans who have been vaccinated. But it comes one day after the Trump administration added to the uncertainty of government health agencies that have canceled an expert meeting that should help choose the recipe for the next winter flu vaccine.

However, it is not too late to vaccinate this year: “If you have not yet obtained a flu, you get it because we still see a high fluctuation in most of the country,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary from the American Pediatric Academy.

The efficiency of the flu varies from year to year. Although it is not excellent in blocking infections, the main role of the vaccine “is to keep you outside the hospital and keep you alive,” said Dr. William Schaffner, the expert in the Vanderbilt University Vaccine.

The preliminary data of the CDC launched on Thursday discovered that this year’s children were between 64% and 78% less likely to be hospitalized than their unvaccinated counterparts, and adults were 41% to 55% less likely to be hospitalized.

How about those complications of the brain? Earlier this month, health departments and state hospitals warned doctors to follow patients with flu with convulsions, hallucinations or other signs of “encephalopathy or encephalitis associated with the flu”-and a more severe subtype called “acute necrotizing encephalopathy”. Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain.

On Thursday, CDC launched an analysis of 1,840 children’s flu deaths from 2010, finding 166 with those neurological complications. Most were unvaccinated. But the agency concluded that it is not clear if this year nine deaths with these complications – four of which had the worse subtype – marks an uptick.

There is no regular pursuit of these neurological complications, which makes it difficult to find the answers. In California, Dr. Keith Van Haren from Stanford Medicine Health said earlier this month that he learned about 15 cases related to influenza in that severe subtype from doctors in the country and “we are aware or more cases that can meet the criteria.” He didn’t say how many they died.

O’Leary, with the Academy of Pediatrics, said that parents should remember this complication is rare – the tips remains to request medical advice whenever a flu child has unusual symptoms or on symptoms, such as the breathing obtained.

Doctors see more neurological complications during severe influenza seasons – they can be related to private influenza stems – and survivors can have seizures or other persistent problems, he said.

Meanwhile, vaccine manufacturers are already preparing for the process of preparation of months of next winter. An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration had to meet on March 13 to help choose the flu stems, but with the annulment of that meeting, it is not clear whether the Government will decide on its own.

“I have really historically worked historically historically to achieve transparency around all these discussions about vaccines,” said O’Leary, who said it is important for the public to understand what is happening in making decisions on the composition of the flu vaccine and other vaccine recommendations.

“The FDA will make public its recommendations to the manufacturers on time for the updated vaccines to be available for the flu season 2025-2026,” said Andrew Nixon, communications director for the Human Health and Services Department, in an e-mail.

___

The AP Jonel Aleccia and Mike Stobbe reporters contributed.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the group of sciences and educational media of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The water is the only one responsible for all content.