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H1N1 causing weekly fatalities despite vaccine surplus
By Rick Harmon ? April 22, 2010
Most Alabamians believe the H1N1 pandemic is over, but each week another Alabama resident is killed by the virus.
In January the Alabama Department of Public Health said that after peaking in October, H1N1-related deaths had dramatically tailed off.
Although it urged people to continue to view the disease as a serious threat and to act accordingly, the department said it was "cautiously optimistic" that the worst of the swine flu pandemic was over.
It wasn't. One-fourth of the state's 52 deaths have come since January, and for the past two months the death toll has been rising.
Health officials were so confident that the worst was over that in 2010, they started releasing information on swine flu deaths in two-month increments, instead of every month.
But after having five deaths in January and February, Alabama has already had eight in March and April.
Two of those 13 deaths have been in the tri-county area -- a Montgomery County male and an Autauga County female. Both were in their 50s, according to health department officials.
"It looked like it had peaked and was reaching the lower end of the bell curve," said Dr. Jim McVay, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Public Health. "Then it increased."
First death was in July
The first swine flu-related death in Alabama occurred in July. After the one death in July, there were four in August, 11 in September and 14 in October.
But in November, the number of deaths dropped to five, and there were only four in December. When January and February saw a total of five for those two months combined, the department hoped the worst of the crisis had passed.
"Unfortunately, now we are still averaging about a death a week," McVay said.
There is some surprise that the virus is still here at all, let alone still deadly.
"For some reason it seems to be staying longer in the Southeast. At this time, you would expect that there just wouldn't be any influenza here now," McVay said. "But H1N1 isn't acting like traditional flu. It's not going away.
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By Rick Harmon ? April 22, 2010
Most Alabamians believe the H1N1 pandemic is over, but each week another Alabama resident is killed by the virus.
In January the Alabama Department of Public Health said that after peaking in October, H1N1-related deaths had dramatically tailed off.
Although it urged people to continue to view the disease as a serious threat and to act accordingly, the department said it was "cautiously optimistic" that the worst of the swine flu pandemic was over.
It wasn't. One-fourth of the state's 52 deaths have come since January, and for the past two months the death toll has been rising.
Health officials were so confident that the worst was over that in 2010, they started releasing information on swine flu deaths in two-month increments, instead of every month.
But after having five deaths in January and February, Alabama has already had eight in March and April.
Two of those 13 deaths have been in the tri-county area -- a Montgomery County male and an Autauga County female. Both were in their 50s, according to health department officials.
"It looked like it had peaked and was reaching the lower end of the bell curve," said Dr. Jim McVay, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Public Health. "Then it increased."
First death was in July
The first swine flu-related death in Alabama occurred in July. After the one death in July, there were four in August, 11 in September and 14 in October.
But in November, the number of deaths dropped to five, and there were only four in December. When January and February saw a total of five for those two months combined, the department hoped the worst of the crisis had passed.
"Unfortunately, now we are still averaging about a death a week," McVay said.
There is some surprise that the virus is still here at all, let alone still deadly.
"For some reason it seems to be staying longer in the Southeast. At this time, you would expect that there just wouldn't be any influenza here now," McVay said. "But H1N1 isn't acting like traditional flu. It's not going away.
/.../
Much more at:
