While even healthy children and adults get severe influenza or die from influenza and its complications, the risk of severe influenza is higher for children younger than 5 years, adults 50 years and older, pregnant people, Alaska Natives and American Indians, and residents of nursing homes or other long-term care facilities. Medical conditions that increase a person’s risk of severe influenza include chronic pulmonary (including asthma), cardiovascular (excluding isolated hypertension), renal, hepatic, neurologic, hematologic, or metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus); immunocompromising conditions due to any cause (including, but not limited to, immune suppression caused by medications or HIV); extreme obesity (body mass index of 40 or greater for adults); and the chronic use of aspirin- or salicylate-containing medications in children through age 18 (due to the risk of Reye syndrome after influenza infection).

More information about risk factors for severe influenza infection can be found at: www.cdc.gov/flu/highrisk/index.htm.