Even as the US respiratory illness season continues to ebb, it remains deadly, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documenting 12 more pediatric deaths in its FluView update today.
So far this season, 139 children have died from the virus, and about 85% with a known vaccination status were unvaccinated. While the CDC has classified this flu season as moderate for adults, it’s been high-severity for children.
For comparison, in the previous three flu seasons the CDC logged 187, 210, and 296 flu-related deaths for the complete season. The 289 pediatric deaths in 2024-25 was the most since the 2009-10 H1N1 flu pandemic.
Only four jurisdictions were reporting moderate flu activity last week, and none saw high activity. Flu accounted for 8.2% of viral respiratory diseases, down from 9.8% the previous week. A total of 2,589 people were hospitalized, compared with 3,050 the week before. The proportion of outpatient visits for flu declined to 2.4% from 2.6% the previous week.
More flu cases reported this season have been caused by influenza A(H3N2) rather than influenza B viruses. Of 2,166 influenza A(H3N2) viruses collected since September 28, 2025, that underwent additional genetic testing at the CDC, 92.8% were subclade K.
So far this season, the CDC estimates that there have been at least 31 million illnesses, 370,000 hospitalizations, and 23,000 deaths from flu. The hospitalization rate in FluSurv-NET is the third highest since the 2010-11 season, with children having the second-highest hospitalization rate for that age-group since that season.
RSV activity waning; COVID levels low
The level of acute respiratory illness causing people to seek medical attention is very low. Rates of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remain elevated, but the virus is past peak in many areas of the country, the CDC said in its weekly respiratory virus activity update today.
COVID-19 levels are low in most parts of the country, and viral wastewater concentrations are low for RSV and very low for COVID-19 and influenza A.
