Re: Second DE H1N1 death
Re: Second DE H1N1 death
Source:
http://www.delawareonline.com/artic...h+agency++Del.+teen+s+death+swine-flu-related
Health agency: Del. teen's death swine-flu-related
By ESTEBAN PARRA ? The News Journal ? October 23, 2009
Delaware's Division of Public Health said today it is looking into the death of a 15-year-old boy to see if he died of complications related to swine flu.
The boy, who had a number of underlying health conditions, went to his doctor on Oct. 19 and was later transported to a Delaware hospital, where initial testing for strep infection was positive and influenza was negative. Post-mortem test results today were positive for H1N1 influenza, and the death will be reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as H1N1-related since flu was present.
?I want to extend my sympathies to the family and friends of the boy,? said Dr. Karyl Rattay, division director. ?DPH is still exploring the role the H1N1 virus had in this case, since there were multiple other existing medical conditions.?
News of the boy?s death comes a day after the division announced that a 35-year-old Kent County woman was the first person to die of complications related to swine flu. Division officials said the boy?s cause of death was not identified until today.
The two deaths occurred as concern increases that most of the swine flu vaccine produced by the nation?s largest supplier of the medicine will not reach the U.S. until the first quarter of 2010, near the end of the flu season.
Switzerland-based Novartis AG is the biggest U.S. supplier of the new vaccine, and U.S. health officials have reported the country?s overall supply will reach 28 million doses by the end of the month after previously projecting 40 million to 50 million by mid-October. H1N1 is widespread in 41 states, has hospitalized more than 5,000 and has caused the deaths of 292 people since Sept. 1, 90 percent of whom were younger than 65, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Oct. 20.
Dr. Ciro V. Sumaya, a professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health and a member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, was quoted in HealthDay news service that glitches can -- and apparently did -- occur at several points in the process of developing a vaccine, especially for a virus that was first identified in April.
(2 of 2)
In explaining the vaccine delay, Sumaya said that, first, the H1N1 virus did not grow as quickly as expected during a half-century-old -- and often-criticized -- egg-based production technique.
Second, he said, ?because there was kind of a rush to get things done, there were some packaging areas that they [federal officials] had thought wouldn't take long, yet they did.?
?Even in the distribution, to find certain target groups so it reaches them first, we have to have a sense of what is going on across the country, which is a dynamic situation,? he said.
Then there are the twin demands facing vaccine manufacturers to produce two different vaccines at the same time -- one for swine flu and one for seasonal flu.
In the first reported death, the woman had a number of underlying health conditions and was hospitalized in Delaware on Oct. 12. She was then transferred to a Maryland hospital, where she died.
Delaware health officials said her underlying medical issues put her in greater danger than others who contract swine flu.
Delaware has reported 540 confirmed cases of swine flu since Oct. 4. Of those, 191 were confirmed last week. (These figures are expected to increase as more doctors report results from medical examinations.)
Of the 540 cases already reported, 15 were severe enough for the person to be hospitalized. Fourteen recovered and have been discharged.
Contact Esteban Parra at 324-2299 or
eparra@delawareonline.com.
