Child deaths from swine flu were “shooting up” in the Untied States, with 19 deaths from influenza reported in recent days, a top U.S. health official said Friday. “Nineteen more pediatric deaths from influenza were reported to us this week. We're now up to 76 children having died from the 2009 H1N1 virus,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, a senior official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in Washington. “To put that in context, in the past three years the total pediatric influenza deaths ranged from 46 to 88. We've already had 76 children dying from the H1N1 virus and it's only the beginning of October,” Schuchat said. The influenza season in the United States runs from August to March. Child deaths from the new H1N1 strain had fallen in the warm summer months after peaking during the spring, Schuchat said. But they were “starting to shoot up again” with the onset of the autumn flu season, she said, urging parents to have their children vaccinated. The United States this week began a massive campaign to inoculate millions of people against swine flu. Children are one of five groups given high priority for the vaccinations.
