Full classroom, August 19, 2009. Local school systems are working to minimize the threat of H1N1 flu. (WRDW-TV)
ATLANTA -- A study of swine flu's impact on children finds that most of its young victims have been of school age.
The information comes in a report by federal health officials that finds that about one in 13 U.S. swine flu deaths have occured among children.
Normally, at least half of the children who die from flu are age 4 and younger. But more than 80 percent of the children who died with swine flu were at least 5.
Researchers also found that about two-thirds of the children who died with swine flu had a brain-related disorder like epilepsy or cerebral palsy. In a previous flu season, just a third of pediatric deaths had those conditions.
The report also finds that bacterial co-infections were blamed in most of the deaths of otherwise healthy children.