Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Possible H1N1 death in Bay
Lyle McMahon lyle@thesun.co.nz 02 Sep 2010
Health officials are on alert after H1N1 (swine flu) may have caused another death in the Bay of Plenty.
The region's medical officer of health, Dr Phil Shoemack, says information about the death is limited at this stage because the Coroner is still investigating, but he understands the person died in August and is a Bay of Plenty resident.
Tauranga woman Lee Roche died in hospital on June 26 after contracting the virus.
"At any given time the Coroner will have a number of cases to decide on the course of death and I'm aware of one other case where the Coroner has not yet decided what the cause of death was. H1N1 is one of the possibilities," says Phil.
He says the Coroner's findings could take weeks or months.
The spread of H1N1 in the Bay of Plenty has reached its peak and is starting to peak off, says Phil.
"From the different surveillance systems we have, that's reporting from schools, from general practitioners that are part of a national system of flu surveillance and from the number of cases we get notified to us, it appears we are past the peak.
"It will be another week or two before we will be able to say that definitely, but it certainly appears that way," says Phil.
http://www.sunlive.co.nz/17303a1.page
Lyle McMahon lyle@thesun.co.nz 02 Sep 2010
Health officials are on alert after H1N1 (swine flu) may have caused another death in the Bay of Plenty.
The region's medical officer of health, Dr Phil Shoemack, says information about the death is limited at this stage because the Coroner is still investigating, but he understands the person died in August and is a Bay of Plenty resident.
Tauranga woman Lee Roche died in hospital on June 26 after contracting the virus.
"At any given time the Coroner will have a number of cases to decide on the course of death and I'm aware of one other case where the Coroner has not yet decided what the cause of death was. H1N1 is one of the possibilities," says Phil.
He says the Coroner's findings could take weeks or months.
The spread of H1N1 in the Bay of Plenty has reached its peak and is starting to peak off, says Phil.
"From the different surveillance systems we have, that's reporting from schools, from general practitioners that are part of a national system of flu surveillance and from the number of cases we get notified to us, it appears we are past the peak.
"It will be another week or two before we will be able to say that definitely, but it certainly appears that way," says Phil.
http://www.sunlive.co.nz/17303a1.page