[Judith Anne]

I wonder if the child had the Fujian strain...immunization doesn't work against it, right?

Anyway, this is shaping up to be a hard season.

[torstars]

I think that 70-80% of cases in the US are Fujian. I suspect that virtually all of the deaths in previously healthy children are Fujian - that is how things were shaping up in Europe. The Fujian stain has changed quite a bit from A/Panama/2007/99

[torstars]

This is what A/fujian/411/2002 looks like.

[torstars]

Here's A/panama/2007/99

[torstars]

More on flu deaths in otherwise healthy (and in some cases immunized) children:

"DES MOINES (AP) -- A 1-year-old child in Iowa has died of the flu, state health officials confirmed Monday.

Iowa Department of Public Health spokesman Kevin Teale said the child died from Type A influenza.

No further information was released because of patient confidentiality, Teale said. He would not confirm when the child died, the child's name or hometown.

Between 800 and 1,000 Iowans die each year from the flu and pneumonia, he said. Most are elderly or people who have had chronic health problems.

"For an otherwise healthy child, it is unusual," Teale said.

State health officials also didn't know if the child had previously received a flu shot, he said.

He said the flu vaccine is a dead virus and doesn't cause the flu, nor should it compound existing illnesses, such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

Over the weekend, a Council Bluffs family said their 20-month old daughter had died from the flu. Caitlin Mouw died Dec. 2.

Her parents, Dan and Erin Mouw, said the child and three older brothers had been given flu shots. The child's doctor suspects a combination of pneumonia and the flu caused the girl's death, the Mouw family said."