The Nassau County Health Department has just reported the first childhood death attributed to influenza on Long Island in the five years since public health agencies have been required to report pediatric flu deaths.

This weekend, a Levittown elementary school student, a 10-year-old, most likely died because of the flu, as preliminary tests revealed the presence of an A-strain of the flu. The child, who has yet to be identified, had previously been a student at Northside Elementary School. The school district’s Web site reported the death caused concerns of a meningitis-caused death.

However, the same preliminary tests have now ruled out both viral and bacterial forms of the disease. Doctors are now waiting for state results, by the end of the week. If they support the initial finding, they will also reveal which A-strain was responsible. Two A strains are in circulation, the H3N2 and the H1N1, and they can both be prevented by this season’s vaccine.

During last year’s flu season, eight children died statewide and 91 nationally. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 36,000 people, most of them elderly, annually die of the flu, and more than 200,000 are hospitalized. What is so dangerous about this flu? Well, most of the time it paves the way for deadly bacterial lung infections.

Flu is characterized by breathing problems, difficulties in keeping fluids down, fever, change in mental status and underlying conditions, such as heart problems. In related news, a 12-year-old Boston Latin Academy student died over the weekend from complications of the flu. He is the first Massachusetts child known to have died of the flu this season, but it is not known whether he had been vaccinated against the flu.