Swine flu killed 70 young people over nine months

Those from Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities, and with pre-existing conditions - especially neurological diseases such as cerebral palsy - were hardest hit.

However, a fifth of the young people who died were previously healthy.

Doctors said the evidence suggested that all children should be vaccinated against swine flu, especially those in high-risk groups.

There were 457 reported and confirmed swine flu-related deaths across the UK between April last year and March this year.

The new findings, from an investigation into the impact of swine flu on children and teenagers aged 18 and under, were published today in an early online edition of The Lancet medical journal.

The swine flu death toll for children was greater than that caused each year by leukaemia, said the researchers. Such a high death rate for a single infectious disease was last seen in 2001 during an outbreak of meningitis.

Researchers led by Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, former Chief Medical Officer for England, collected data over a nine-month period between June 26, 2009, and March 22, 2010.

Sir Liam now chairs the National Patient Safety Agency, a soon-to-be abolished Government quango body dedicated to improving patient care.

The study found that:

* Overall childhood mortality for H1N1 was six deaths per million of population. The highest death rate of 14 per million was for children aged less than a year old.

* Mortality rates were much higher for Bangladeshi children (47 deaths per million population) and Pakistani children (36 deaths per million) than for white English children (four deaths per million)

* Around a fifth (21%) of children who died were previously healthy or had only mild pre-existing disorders.

* Overall, 64% of children had been vaccinated with Tamiflu. But only seven received the drug within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms and just three before admission to hospital.

* Two children who died received the vaccine too late for it to be effective.

The authors called for international data to be pooled to provided a higher number of cases for analysis.

They wrote: "Our findings support the vaccination of children against pandemic influenza A H1N1. Children at greatest risk of severe illness or death should be prioritised.

"Our data indicates that risk groups include children with pre-existing illness, including chronic neurological or gastrointestinal disease, and those in ethnic minority groups (including Bangladeshi and Pakistani children). However, our findings also suggest that protection cannot be confined to risk groups as 21% of deaths in our cohort occurred in healthy children."

In an accompany comment, Canadian experts Dr Robert Fowler, from the University of Toronto and Dr Phillipe Jouvet, from the University of Montreal, wrote: "We now know that the 2009 H1N1 infection was associated with severe illness and death in greater numbers of children and young adults than previous influenza seasons and other influenza viruses. Any talk of over-reaction to 2009 H1N1 virus might lead to an under-appreciation of the very real risks of influenza."