112 flu deaths since Sep inc 11 kids (4)

(ANSA) - Rome, February 16 - Some 112 people including 11 children under the age of 14 have died of influenza in Italy since September, the Higher Health Institute's (ISS) Flunews service said Friday. Two pregnant women also died, Flunews said.
    Some 588 cases were severe enough to be treated in intensive care units, the ISS service said.
    In the last week, the sixth in 2018, Flunews said, there have been 12 severe cases of flu and one death.
    Data are being continually updated, the service said.
    The ISS experts said almost all the cases would have been avoidable by vaccination.
    They said that, while vaccines do not always prevent flu, they do prevent the most severe forms.
    The 11 children who died all "presented risk factors," the experts added.
    Italy is having a record flu season and there will have been 7.5-8 million cases by the end of this year's epidemic, virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco told ANSA at the end of last month.