CDC’s FluView report for week 38, the week ending Sept. 26, 2026, and posted Oct. 2, carries a season total of 195 influenza-associated pediatric deaths for 2025-26. The agency recorded no new child deaths that week, so the count held where it stood the week before. Every figure in the report is labeled preliminary and subject to change as more reports arrive from states.
Pediatric deaths in FluView are deaths among people under 18 that were reported to CDC with laboratory-confirmed influenza, which is why the tally keeps moving long after a season’s peak has passed.
FluView week 38 and the 195-death season total
The week 38 FluView states the figure without qualification beyond its preliminary status: 195 influenza-associated pediatric deaths occurring during the 2025-26 season have been reported to CDC. It lists none for week 38 itself. The same report counts 31,513 laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalizations in the FluSurv-NET network between Oct. 1, 2025, and Sept. 26, 2026, a cumulative rate of 90.0 per 100,000 people.
The prior season sets the scale. CDC’s week 37 report lists 298 pediatric deaths for 2024-25, which makes this season’s 195 roughly two-thirds of that total, although the week 37 page shows the older count was still rising by one death at that late date.
The hospitalization series shows the same slow accrual. The week 22 report counted 30,486 FluSurv-NET hospitalizations from Oct. 1, 2025, through June 6, and the week 37 report counted 31,363, which means the season total was still gaining cases more than three months after the weekly rate had fallen to 0.1 per 100,000. The week 38 total of 31,513 is another 150 on top of the week 37 figure, so a season already described as low-activity keeps producing late additions in the national tables, and the report’s own footer reminds readers that “all data in this report are preliminary and may change as more reports are received.”
Reporting lag from three deaths in December to 195
The season’s first weeks look small in hindsight. By the week 50 report, for the week ending Dec. 13, 2025, CDC had received reports of only three pediatric deaths, two of them logged that week, one from the week ending Nov. 22 and one from the week ending Dec. 13. Influenza A(H3N2) accounted for about 90 percent of subtyped influenza A viruses at the time.
The count then climbed through the winter and spring. CIDRAP’s coverage of a mid-season FluView noted six more deaths in one week, for a total of 149. By week 22, ending June 6, 2026, the total stood at 179 with none added that week, and influenza B made up 70.6 percent of positive clinical-lab specimens.
From there, the report logged 16 more over the summer. The week 37 report added two deaths whose onset dates sit in the winter: one that occurred in week 50 of 2025 and one in week 53, the week ending Jan. 3, 2026. Deaths from December were still being added in September, a delay that reflects how a state health department confirms the cause, matches a lab result and transmits the case file before CDC can count it.
Vaccination status and the viruses behind the deaths
CDC’s pediatric death reports also track whether a child was vaccinated. Medical Daily’s summary of the season’s data, written when the count was 179, reported that roughly 85 percent of the eligible children who died were not fully vaccinated against influenza, a share CIDRAP also gave for those with a known vaccination status. The week 38 report itself carries no such breakdown, so that percentage is anchored to the earlier count rather than to 195.
The viruses have shifted since the deaths began. The same Medical Daily piece describes a season dominated by influenza A(H3N2), with influenza B growing later. The current week 38 data describe the opening of the next season rather than the close of this one: 3.4 percent of clinical-lab specimens tested positive, 96.3 percent of those were influenza A, and public health laboratories typed 96.4 percent of influenza A viruses as A(H1N1)pdm09. Outpatient visits for influenza-like illness were 1.7 percent of all visits, with the highest rate, 5.5 percent, among children aged 0 to 4.
Medical Daily’s reading of the June data places the season in a longer run. It lists the 179 deaths then reported as fewer than the 297 recorded for 2024-25, the 210 for 2023-24 and the 187 for 2022-23 in its comparison, while pediatric hospitalization rates for children under 18 reached the second-highest level since 2010-11. A season can therefore rank lower on deaths and still be heavy on hospital stays, and the week 38 hospitalization rate of 90.0 per 100,000 is a population-wide figure that does not isolate children.
Week 39 had not been posted when this was checked, so 195 remains the most recent official figure. Any week 39 addition would most likely reflect a death from last winter, since the report’s own history shows reports arriving months after the death.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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