Child dies from flu in El Paso County

The deadly flu season continues, claiming the life of a child in El Paso County. The recent death marks the first flu-related death for a child in Colorado this season.

Director of Communications for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Mark Salley could not confirm specifics, including the age of the child who died but stated they consider a child anyone under the age of 18 years old. He confirmed the child was old enough to be vaccinated but was not.

"We encourage everyone to get their flu shot," was the simple message Salley wanted to share with the public.

According to the Colorado Flu Report for the week ending on Jan. 13, there have been 95 outbreaks and one pediatric death with 2,055 hospitalizations since Oct. 1, 2017. The pediatric death was associated with influenza A, not subtyped, and had an onset of the week ending in Dec. 30, 2017.

Including H1N1, H3, Type A and Type B, El Paso County has seen a total of 256 diagnosed cases of the flu from Oct. 1 to Jan. 13. Pueblo County has seen 122 diagnosed cases in the same time period.