Kiln student may be 2nd Miss. flu death- confirmed A/H1N1

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090827/NEWS/90827022/Kiln-student-may-be-2nd-Miss.-flu-death

Kiln student may be 2nd Miss. flu death

By Jerry Mitchell ? jmitchell@clarionledger.com ? August 27, 2009


What could be the second flu death in Mississippi ? and the first of an enrolled student ? took place Thursday.


Authorities confirmed a 12- or 13-year-old girl who was a student at Hancock Middle School in Kiln had died after suffering flulike symptoms.

"We're still investigating," Hancock County Coroner Norma Stiglet said.

An autopsy, scheduled for later Thursday, is expected to determine whether the girl died of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.

A child in Jackson County died earlier this month from complications related to that flu. She was 7 years old but had not yet returned to school.

Mississippi has confirmed about 500 cases of the flu statewide. The disease has spread among many students across the state.

Mississippi State University alone has 279 probable flu cases.

State Epidemiologist Mary Currier has said this strain of flu is no worse than seasonal flu, except that Mississippians have no immunity to this flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hope to have a vaccine for the strain by mid-October, she said.

 

[GennieF]

Re: Kiln student may be 2nd Miss. flu death

Re: Kiln student may be 2nd Miss. flu death

HANCOCK COUNTY ? Health officials are looking into the possibility that a 13-year-old girl who died Thursday had swine flu.

Officials said it could be several more days before more is known from an autopsy that was completed after the Kiln girl, a student at Hancock Middle School, died. Her identify has not yet been released, nor has a cause of death been confirmed.

The cause was being withheld ?pending further investigation and lab tests,? Hancock County Coroner Norma Stiglet said Thursday evening. ?I expect it will be two or three days before we get results.?

Local officials declined to comment about fears that the child?s death may have involved the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. However, Dr. Paul Byers, medical director in the department of epidemiology at the Mississippi Department of Health, said the possibility was being examined.

?We are investigating the matter, but we haven?t confirmed anything yet,? he said.

Alan Dedeaux, superintendent of schools in Hancock County, confirmed that the girl had been a student at the county?s middle school in Kiln. He did not say whether she had been absent from school because of illness.

?I just don?t have any facts at this time,? he said.

However, Dedeaux discounted reports that parents began pulling their children out of the middle school after reports of the death began circulating Thursday. ?That has not happened,? he said.

Also on Thursday, the state Department of Health reported 499 cases of swine flu in Mississippi. A 7-year-old Jackson County child died of the disease earlier this month. Health officials have warned that more cases may occur with school back in session and large numbers of children confined in classrooms together. According to the state Department of Health, 11 to 25 cases of swine flu have occurred in Jackson County and there have been as many as 65 cases in Harrison County. To date, there have been no confirmed cases in Hancock County, the department said.

http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/1566348.html?storylink=omni_popular

 

[tesseract]

Re: Kiln student may be 2nd Miss. flu death

Re: Kiln student may be 2nd Miss. flu death

http://www.sunherald.com/412/story/1573489.html

Hancock County officials have confirmed that a 13-year-old girl who died last week was killed by swine flu.
Hancock County coroner Norma Stiglet said she learned shortly before 4 p.m. that Heidi Ann Peterson, of Kiln, died of H1N1 swine flu.
The cause was confirmed to her by the Mississippi Department of Health, Stiglet said.
?They have confirmed that it was swine flu and they have notified the family,? Stiglet said.
Peterson, who was a student at Hancock Middle School, died at her home in Kiln last Thursday morning...

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Kiln student may be 2nd Miss. flu death- confirmed A/H1N1

Source: http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11022318

Swine flu confirmed in Hancock Co. student's death

Associated Press - August 31, 2009 6:44 PM ET

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) - The coroner is confirming that swine flu killed a Hancock County Middle School student last Thursday.

Hancock County Coroner Norma Stiglet told WLOX-TV news Monday that autopsy results confirmed the cause of death for 13-year-old Heidi Ann Peterson of Kiln.

In central Mississippi, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said Monday that preliminary swine flu test results from the state Department of Health were negative for Wesley Husband, a 15-year-old Warren Central High student who died Thursday.

Huskey said further testing will be conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Huskey said he didn't have a cause of death for the student.

Husband died after being out of school several days. He was treated in an emergency room Tuesday and released.