--- title: 4-Year-Old Girl Is New Jersey’s First Flu-Related Death description: Officials confirmed the first flu-related death in New Jersey this flu season was a 4-year-old girl who had not been vaccinated. canonical: https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/ author: Alix Langone article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-31T19:00:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:05:30.315Z article:section: Health og:title: 4-Year-Old's Flu Death Confirmed as New Jersey's First Influenza Fatality og:description: She had not been vaccinated, according to officials og:url: https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 4-Year-Old's Flu Death Confirmed as New Jersey's First Influenza Fatality twitter:description: She had not been vaccinated, according to officials twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 4-Year-Old's Flu Death Confirmed as New Jersey's First Influenza Fatality > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=31c9d5eb-6e29-4cac-9db1-96affa6581a6&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Here's Why the Flu Is Especially Bad This Year [Watch (HLS stream): Here's Why the Flu Is Especially Bad This Year](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ityYoAe6.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2018-01-18. Here's Why the Flu Is Especially Bad This Year_ by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Jan 31, 2018 7:00 PM UTC by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Jan 31, 2018 7:00 PM UTC A 4-year-old girl has been confirmed as New Jersey’s first flu-related death by state officials. She died in December and was not vaccinated, [officials said, according to News 12 New Jersey](http://newjersey.news12.com/story/37391230/nj-health-officials-confirm-4-year-old-as-first-flu-death-victim). The child was from Central New Jersey but her name and town have not been released. New Jersey is experiencing an especially tough flu season, with more than 7,332 cases as of Jan.27, [according to the state’s health department](http://www.nj.gov/health/cd/documents/flu/surveillance/flu%5Freport%5Fwk%5F04.pdf). That’s up from the from 4,750 cases reported to the state by Jan.20, meaning more than 2,500 new cases were reported in just seven days. Bergen County has reported 972 cases, the most so far, while Monmouth and Camden counties are not far behind, reporting 883 and 680 cases respectively. No New Jersey residents died last year from the flu and the 2015-2016 season saw only one death, but confirmed cases are [growing at a faster pace](http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/01/flu%5Fseason%5Fin%5Fnj%5Fcould%5Fbe%5Fworst%5Fin%5Frecent%5Fyears%5Fne.html) this year than the last two seasons. Thirty-seven children have died so far in the U.S. [this flu season](http://time.com/5113281/flu-death-toll-children-2018/), according to [data from the CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/). But it’s not too late to get a flu shot. Children are not the only people susceptible to the virus. [Baby Boomers have been hospitalized at higher rates](http://time.com/5120510/flu-season-baby-boomers-cdc/?iid=sr-link1) than their children and grandchildren this flu season. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/"},"headline":"4-Year-Old's Flu Death Confirmed as New Jersey's First Influenza Fatality","datePublished":"2018-01-31T19:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:05:30.315Z","description":"She had not been vaccinated, according to officials","url":"https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/","keywords":["flu","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alix Langone","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alix-langone/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/flu/","name":"flu"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/","name":"4-Year-Old's Flu Death Confirmed as New Jersey's First Influenza Fatality"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here's Why the Flu Is Especially Bad This Year","description":"Here's Why the Flu Is Especially Bad This Year","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ityYoAe6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-01-18T18:34:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ityYoAe6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/","duration":"PT1M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5127213/new-jersey-4-year-old-flu-fatality/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```