CDC All children should now get flu shot

-- Washington state ordered some 80,000 additional doses of influenza vaccine this fall to prepare for a new federal recommendation that all children ages 6 months through 18 years get an annual flu shot.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year changed its prior recommendation, which suggested the shot only for kids 6 months to 5 years, along with high-risk groups, health-care and child-care workers and people older than 50.

More than 435,000 doses specifically for children are being distributed to county health districts across the state, said Lonnie Malone, health educator for the state Department of Health's immunization program.

The recommendation changed because more vaccine is available, and because children are more likely to spread the flu to others, according to the CDC's Web site.

It comes on the heels of a particularly severe flu season.

Last winter, the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza from mid-January to mid-May surpassed the CDC's epidemic threshold for 19 weeks, according to the agency. States reported the highest number of deaths among children in three years.

Thirty-three states including Washington reported 86 flu-related deaths of children. Of the 63 who died who were older than 6 months, 92 percent had not had a flu shot, according to the CDC's Web site.

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