As flu season storms through and claims its many victims, people are on high alert for classic symptoms like fever, chills, cough, and fatigue.
But when the signs aren’t so obvious, diagnosis is tricky, explains a nurse, who’s warning parents after her son developed an uncommon flu symptom that left her scratching her head.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 202 children died from the flu in the 2023 to 2024 season, the highest number since 2009 to 2010 when 288 pediatric deaths were reported.
“Flu illness is more dangerous than the common cold for children. Each year, millions of children get sick with seasonal flu; thousands of children are hospitalized, and some children die from flu,” the CDC writes, adding the risk of serious illness is reduced with frequent vaccinations and early treatment.
Early treatment, however, can be tricky for parents when the flu manifests as something entirely different.
Itchy child
This is what happened to Brodi Willard, a nurse and a mother, who was puzzled when her young son came home from school, covered in hives.
“Every time he would scratch, more would appear. We tried changing his clothes and giving him a bath, but nothing helped,” Willard writes in her Facebook post that shows Seb’s hive-covered arm.
After Willard called his pediatrician, she
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