Re: Two H1N1 deaths reported on Long Island
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-liswin1612880598jun15,0,332395.story
2 Brookhaven residents are LI's first swine flu deaths
BY RIDGELY OCHS AND CHAU LAM |
ridgely.ochs@newsday.com,
chau.lam@newsday.com
7:16 PM EDT, June 15, 2009
Two Brookhaven residents have become the first people on Long Island whose deaths have been tied to the swine flu.
Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Humayun Chaudhry announced Monday that the two residents died last week. Both had underlying medical problems, he said.
Neither knew each other, had any connection to a school or to anyone in Mexico, he said.
Chaudhry said he wasn't surprised by the deaths.
"This tells me that the virus, like seasonal influenza, can be dangerous and deadly," he said. But unlike typical seasonal flu, this new virus doesn't appear to be on the wane: "People need to be vigilant and don't assume because the weather is getting nice, the virus is going away," he said.
Citing privacy concerns, Chaudhry would not release the exact ages of the two people or the villages where they lived.
One, he said, was a man between the age of 35 and 45 with a serious, chronic medical condition who was hospitalized two weeks ago with "multiple medical problems, including pneumonia." He died June 10.
The second was a woman, retired, with "multiple medical conditions," between the age of 55 and 65. On June 6 she developed a fever, dry cough and sore throat. She went to her doctor, who sent a nasal swab for testing. Her doctor prescribed medication for a respiratory infection and she reported feeling better the next morning, Chaudhry said. Nevertheless, she died the same day, June 9.
An autopsy was done last Friday on the woman and the results are pending. "What we can say at this time is that her death is linked to the virus but we cannot say that it was the primary cause," he said.
So far the new flu has been confirmed in 81 Suffolk residents since April 26. In Nassau, 68 cases have been confirmed, including one patient now hospitalized in the intensive care unit.
Statewide, 1,406 cases of the flu have been confirmed, most of them in New York City where there have been 16 deaths.
Chaudhry, who was meeting last night with camp administrators, said his concern now is to help them staunch the spread of the flu. "Summer camp could be an amplification point," he said, meaning that it could be a place from which the virus could spread. "We want them to be cognizant of the larger community."
