Nearly four months after swine flu first surfaced in Mexico, Brevard County is reporting its first severe infection with this flu type in a 19-year-old woman.
Public health officials confirmed Monday that the gravely ill, unidentified student was taken first to Wuesthoff Medical Center-Melbourne then Holmes Regional Medical Center, before being transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, where she still is undergoing treatment.
Although health officials said the novel flu strain appears mild compared with seasonal flu, in this case, the patient's condition worsened.
When she came to the hospital she had influenza "and an extremely low white blood cell count, which was the smoking gun," said Dr. William Catena, of Osler Medical, who initially treated her.
"She already had tested negative for seasonal flu, so we started her on Tamiflu and antibiotics immediately," he said.
In a typical flu season, more than 100,000 people are hospitalized with complications, while an estimated 36,000 die from these respiratory viral infections.
"Right now, if you have flu symptoms, it's very likely you have swine flu," said Barry Inman, an epidemiologist with the Brevard County Health Department. "Swine flu is getting transferred (from person-to-person) better than we expected."
The exact number of infected individuals, Inman said, is difficult to determine, however, because the state only accepts viral cultures for testing if a patient requires hospitalization or if there is an outbreak involving more than two individuals, with most testing now done by private laboratories.
Since May 1, 55 cases of H1N1 -- swine flu's official name -- have been reported to the state from the county, "although there could be several thousand cases out there," Inman said.
"With flu, that's not so uncommon. What's a little unusual is seeing this type of activity during the summer months," he said.
The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert for H1N1 from phase 5 to phase 6 in mid-June, assessing the severity of the community-wide transmission in multiple countries around the world as moderate.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090714/NEWS01/907140322/1006/news01
Public health officials confirmed Monday that the gravely ill, unidentified student was taken first to Wuesthoff Medical Center-Melbourne then Holmes Regional Medical Center, before being transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, where she still is undergoing treatment.
Although health officials said the novel flu strain appears mild compared with seasonal flu, in this case, the patient's condition worsened.
When she came to the hospital she had influenza "and an extremely low white blood cell count, which was the smoking gun," said Dr. William Catena, of Osler Medical, who initially treated her.
"She already had tested negative for seasonal flu, so we started her on Tamiflu and antibiotics immediately," he said.
In a typical flu season, more than 100,000 people are hospitalized with complications, while an estimated 36,000 die from these respiratory viral infections.
"Right now, if you have flu symptoms, it's very likely you have swine flu," said Barry Inman, an epidemiologist with the Brevard County Health Department. "Swine flu is getting transferred (from person-to-person) better than we expected."
The exact number of infected individuals, Inman said, is difficult to determine, however, because the state only accepts viral cultures for testing if a patient requires hospitalization or if there is an outbreak involving more than two individuals, with most testing now done by private laboratories.
Since May 1, 55 cases of H1N1 -- swine flu's official name -- have been reported to the state from the county, "although there could be several thousand cases out there," Inman said.
"With flu, that's not so uncommon. What's a little unusual is seeing this type of activity during the summer months," he said.
The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert for H1N1 from phase 5 to phase 6 in mid-June, assessing the severity of the community-wide transmission in multiple countries around the world as moderate.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090714/NEWS01/907140322/1006/news01