Doctors and health officials are raising the alarm over a surge in child deaths caused by a shocking “brain-rotting” syndrome.
Almost a dozen children have contracted a rare brain disorder after being infected with influenza.
The brain condition causes seizures, delirium, and death.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that of 68 children who have died of the flu during the 2024-2025 season, nine had a condition called influenza-associated encephalopathy or encephalitis (IAE).
Four of those children had a more severe subtype called acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE).
The CDC didn’t reveal any details about the children aside from they were all under five years old.
ANE occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to a common virus, like the flu.
It causes widespread inflammation and tissue damage throughout the body, including the brain.
The disorder allows toxins and bacteria to enter the brain and kill tissue.
Over time, the brain swells, and cells die.
The Daily Mail described ANE as a “brain-rotting disorder.”
The disease shares symptomatic and pathological resemblance with mitochondrial metabolic disorders.
Adrienne Randolph, MD, MSc, of Boston Children’s Hospital, said she reported about 12 potential cases of flu-associated ANE to CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) in the past few weeks.
Randolph noted that ANE can be a complicated diagnosis to make, requiring certain clinical features as well as imaging findings.
That’s why “whatever is done needs to be done in a systematic way, where cases get looked at carefully by experts,” she said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the CDC said the agency “is aware of anecdotal reports” of influenza A-associated ANE in children.
“We do not have active surveillance for ANE, but we are looking into the situation and will provide updates.”
Andrew Silverman, MD, MHS, and Keith Van Haren, MD, of Stanford Medicine in California, said they are aware of at least 10 cases of flu-associated ANE in their state alone over last year’s and this year’s influenza seasons.
“Although ANE is not a specifically reportable condition, this appears to be a true increase in the number of cases,” Silverman said.
Last year, they treated a child for flu-related ANE at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.
They published a case report in Neurology.
That case was followed by “an unusual cluster of additional cases within the next few weeks, prompting interest in a larger case series,” Van Haren said.
Van Haren and Silverman are collecting cases of flu-associated ANE.
They recently issued a request on the International Society of Infectious Diseases’ ProMED email listserv.
Silverman said that with the help of the California Department of Public Health, they are also requesting enhanced surveillance recommendations for the condition.
Symptoms of ANE can include seizures and altered mental status, and patients can become comatose, said Sue Hong Routson, MD, a pediatric neurointensivist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.
“It’s this type of fulminant cerebral edema where the brain swells so rapidly within a really short timeframe,” Routson warns.
“A kid can walk into the hospital, and a day or two later, the brain is swollen so severely that they lose all their brain function.
“It’s a pretty terrifying entity in that it feels once the dominoes start tipping, it’s really hard to come back from it.”
Classic imaging findings for ANE include bilateral thalamic involvement, deep gray matter involvement, and sometimes brain stem involvement, she said.
Routson said her facility has had one case of ANE this year, along with four other cases of children with neurologic complications from influenza that didn’t have the classic ANE findings on MRI or the clinical progression.
Typically, she said she sees maybe one case of influenza with neurologic complications each year.
“It does feel like we’re seeing a lot more brain-related issues this year than I’ve seen in the past,” she said.
She noted that it’s “been a very active flu season” with “a lot of flu-related [intensive care unit] admissions” happening right now.
Last year, Italian researchers reported a flu outbreak with ANE at Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence, Italy.
Seven children developed the condition, ranging from milder encephalopathy to ANE with coma and multiorgan failure.
They detailed their findings in the European CDC’s journal, Eurosurveillance.
One of the children died, and another was left in a minimally conscious state.
The rest, meanwhile, eventually made a good or full recovery.
All of the children tested positive for the 2009 pandemic strain of H1N1, the authors reported.
However, it wasn’t clear exactly what caused the cluster of cases.
READ MORE – Cleveland Clinic: Millions of Covid-Vaxxed Will Die Within ‘5 Years’
