More than 80,000 Americans died of the flu in the winter of 2017-2018, the highest number in over a decade, federal health officials said last week.

Although 90 percent of those deaths were in people over age 65, the flu also killed 180 young children and teenagers, more than in any other year since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began using its current surveillance methods.

The estimates were released at a news conference held by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases to urge Americans to get vaccinated and to fight the myths that scare off some people — such as the common misconception that flu shots can cause flu.

The high mortality rate was unusual because it was caused by a “normal” — albeit severe — flu season, not by a new pandemic influenza strain.