(October 6, 2008)--A new government report finds that more children have died from flu because they also had staph infections.
The number of deaths wasn't high, at 73 during the 2006-07 flu season, but there was more than a fivefold increase in hard-to-treat complications.
Public health officials say the numbers underscore the importance of a new recommendation that all children, from 6 months through 18, get routine flu shots.
Staph germs commonly live in the nose or skin without causing illness but the bugs can become deadly when they get into the bloodstream, sometimes through wounds.
Lynn Finelli, a researcher for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the study's lead author, says the flu is thought to make people more susceptible to bacterial infections such as staph.
The study appears in the October edition of Pediatrics.
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