BOSTON -- The mother of a Jamaica Plain boy who died over the weekend from the flu said he was not vaccinated at school earlier this year because he lost his flu shot permission slip.

Hunter Pope, 12, a seventh-grader at Boston Latin Academy, became ill Friday at school and was sent home when it became apparent he had a 101-degree fever. They rushed him tot he hospital at 4 a.m. Saturday. He died Sunday at Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Anita Barry, director of the infectious disease bureau for the Boston Health Commission, said Tuesday there was no indication the boy had any underlying health problems.

Pope is the state's first reported flu death this season. Last year, four Massachusetts children died from the flu, the health department said.

His mother, Tess, 48, said she did not know until Monday that he had lost the permission slip, the Boston Herald reported.

She said she would have pushed him to have the vaccination had she known. She said Hunter and his twin sister Molly, as well as their twin 15-year-old siblings Connor and Ramsay were all conceived through in vitro fertilization. She said they were all born through the help of medicine.

Tess and her husband Ken, 48, run a French horn manufacturing business from their Wenham street home, the paper reported.

“Each year about 35,000 people die from the flu in the U.S.,” said Dr. Thomas Sandora, medical director of Infection Control at Children’s Hospital Boston. “It’s a very serious illness, which is why receiving the vaccine is so important.”

A highly contagious virus, the flu is one of the most severe illnesses of the winter season. Symptoms of the flu include high fever, cough, sore throat, body aches and fatigue. If a child presents with these symptoms, parents should call their pediatrician.

Sandora notes that while we are nearing the peak of the flu season in Massachusetts, it’s not too late to get the flu shot and that children who have not received the vaccine should get one through their health care provider.

“It usually takes a couple of weeks from the time you get the shot to be fully protected,” says Sandora, “but flu activity tends to continue through at least March so it would be wise for children who have not received the vaccine to receive it now.”

Statewide, an estimated 3,200 people have contracted influenza this season, down from 3,364 at this time last year, according to the state health department.

The federal Centers for Disease Control reported that four children nationwide have died from flu through Feb. 7.