H1N1 flu victim collapsed on way to hospital [Latest H1N1 updates downthread]

GuelphMercury.com ^ | June 24, 2009 | Raveena Aulakh

[metmom]

Within minutes, six-year-old Rubjit Thindal went from happily chatting in the back seat of the car to collapsing and dying in her father's arms.

"If we had known it was so serious, we would have called 911,'' Kuldip Thindal, Rubjit's distraught mother, said in Punjabi yesterday. "She just had a stomach ache -- she wasn't even crying.''

Rubjit was pronounced dead at hospital barely 24 hours after showing signs of a fever. Later, doctors told her parents she had the H1N1 influenza virus. She is believed to be the youngest person in Canada with the virus to have died.

[DvdMom]

“Teen’s death caused by H1N1”
http://www.newssun.com/0918-tc-death-h1n1-flu-sebring
(Florida) “SEBRING — Test results have shown that the cause of death for Marquis Hamilton, the Sebring High School freshman who died last Friday, was complications from H1N1 swine flu.

The 14-year-old didn’t have any underlying health conditions that contributed to his death”...

Comment’s from the article ( see above link )

Comment by: Blondebimbo - 9/17/2009
...”don’t jump to conclusions and think that the parents were taking his illness lightly.I get both local newspapers and according to today’s “other” paper he started off with an upset stomach and fever
and did all the things that most of us would when we’re ill-fever reducer, gatorade,etc.
The family said that on Thursday the fever had broke and he was feeling better and looking forward to re-joining his football team.
Un-fortunately later that day things turned worse with diarrhea and vomiting and the stepdad was very concerned because he knew this young man was be-coming dehydrated.
From there we know the tragic outcome.
He became another victim of this frightening swine flu epidemic.I don’t know anything about this family except what I’ve read,but I have no reason to judge the parents.By all accounts they seem to be a mature, responsible loving couple.Perhaps the boy should have been seen by a dr. at the very first symptom
and I’m sure that if they could be given another chance to do things over they would’ve tore up the road to get him to a Dr. or hospital.”...

Comment: “ (by: concerned - 9/17/2009)
my 3 kids had temps of 103.5 and we took them to the e.r and they sent us home, said keep them out of school until the fever is gone 24 hours without meds,
guess what, it is a week and a half later and they still have a fever.
drs/hospitals dont seem to be taking this very seriously. my heart goes out to these parents.”

[DoughtyOne]

I actually have tried turning the gray darker, but another step or two, and it blends too closely to the blue.

Look, I’m not doing this to bother you. Ignore my posts, and take care.

Later.

[DvdMom]

Swine flu is striking the young, not elderly, in Texas

08:26 AM CDT on Friday, October 2, 2009
By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
sjacobson@dallasnews.com
http://www.kvue.com/news/state/stories/100209kvue-kid-flu-eh.1d8a3cffa.html

Doctors’ offices and emergency rooms across the Dallas area have been inundated this week with sick patients complaining of flu-like symptoms.

But a closer look reveals that the patients most often are children and young adults, seeking care alongside their distraught parents.

Since the swine flu, or H1N1 virus, first appeared in Texas in April, it has seemed to target the young and not the old.

“We’re seeing very little disease in people who are 65 years and older with this particular virus,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center Dallas.

[DvdMom]

Mutation linked to greater virulence in swine flu

By: The Canadian Press
Date: Wednesday Sep. 30, 2009 8:11 AM ET
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090930/mutation_swineflu_090930/20090930?hub=Health

TORONTO — Dutch scientists have reported they have found what was thought to be a key mutation in some swine flu viruses from the Netherlands, a change many virologists feared would give the viruses the ability to cause more severe disease.

[DvdMom]

http://www.recombinomics.com

[DvdMom]

These are links to some flu websites

Flu Trackers

http://www.flutrackers.com

Pandemic Flu Forum

http://www.singtomeohmuse.com/viewforum.php?f=1

Timebomb2000

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=330395&page=59

[ET(end tyranny)]

Swine flu is striking the young, not elderly, in Texas

Well, once those vaccines become available, we'll see if there is a slowing of the deaths. I'm curious as to how well it will work.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Ooops, not sure how that happened. I thought fonts could only be in black and light gray.

Sorry, I'll be more careful in the future. ;)

[ET(end tyranny)]

Thanks for all the links. I have been passing some of them on to my son who is a freshman at Michigan State this year.

I really fear for college kids everywhere. So many people from so many places in confined areas. :(

[DvdMom]

Thanks for your posts too :)

[DvdMom]

I think post 1,506 & post 1,546 on this thread written by freeper justsaynomore should be read by anyone interested in the H1N1/ swineflu .

Thanks , justsaynomore for posting your thoughts on the situation on this thread .

[ET(end tyranny)]

4) Many cases are testing negative, but I don’t just mean the rapid flu test. I mean many that are in the hospital and getting the blood tests, even some that have died. They have tested negative several times before testing positive. In many cases it is taking an autopsy to determine the cause of death. This could indicate that the parameters of the test no longer match the virus (i.e., mutation)

This is bad because as we have already seen, it delays treatment. Though admittedly sometimes the treatment doesn't work, but, is that because of the delay?

[ET(end tyranny)]

Thanks for the 1546 alert. Copied the post and saved it.

[DvdMom]

CDC: Rapid tests miss many swine flu cases

Findings suggest doctors should simply treat symptoms

By Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters
updated 4:44 p.m. ET, Thurs., Sept . 24, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33006971/ns/health-swine_flu/

CHICAGO - A study of rapid influenza tests found they miss many cases of swine flu, and U.S. health experts said on Thursday they are not worth the trouble for this flu season.

A study looking at the effectiveness of a rapid flu test in the first few weeks of the H1N1 pandemic in May found it detected less than half of the cases later confirmed by more sophisticated tests.

The findings, which appeared in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on death and disease, confirm the CDC’s current guidelines, which stress that people with flu-like symptoms should get quick treatment, before getting a flu test.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters at a briefing that doctors should simply treat symptoms and not bother with testing.

[DvdMom]

It could be because of the delay of negative tests.

There was 1 case were Tamiflu was taken the next day of symptoms , & a healthy young adult still died .

I believe this is the 1st death I heard of that Tamiflu was taken the very next day of flu symptoms , & a healthy young adult still died !

OH:

Even with quick medical attention, healthy Hingham student succumbed to flu

By John P. Kelly
GateHouse News Service
Posted Sep 29, 2009 @ 12:02 PM
Last update Sep 29, 2009 @ 12:03 PM
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/state/x1699603515/Even-with-quick-medical-attention-healthy-Hingham-student-succumbed-to-flu

HINGHAM — Beth Healey said her 18-year-old son, Matt, was “perfectly healthy” when he packed for his freshman year of college in Ohio. Being a mother who paid attention to the news about swine flu, Healey made sure her son had flu-treatment medicine – just in case.

Matthew Healey first felt sick on Monday, Aug. 31, and started taking the prescription drug Tamiflu the next day, his mother said. On Wednesday, Sept. 2, a doctor told him he was likely infected with the H1N1 virus and prescribed an antibiotic. Three days later, weak and dehydrated, the Hingham teenager was taken by ambulance to University Hospital in Cincinnati and admitted to intensive care.

Healey died three weeks later. His case is a reminder that young people appear to be at higher risk when it comes to H1N1. And that death is a possibility, even when swift treatment is sought.

Yep - as you know several of these kids had to have autopsies to confirm H1N1. How many pneumonia, MRSA, staph, strep and other deaths went under the radar (could have been H1N1 but tested negative)

Many swine flu deaths linked to pneumonia
Bacterial co-infections worsen the impact of the H1N1 virus, CDC warns

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33088461/ns/health-swine_flu/

By JoNel Aleccia

More evidence of MRSA involvement in H1N1 flu

September 28, 2009 22:21 ET
Maryn McKenna
http://www.globalpost.com/webblog/health/more-evidence-mrsa-involvement-h1n1-flu

Drudge_Report Many swine flu deaths linked with second infection... http://tinyurl.com/yewnms8

(((((”Sadly, this is the profile that other states have reported,” Phillips said. “A previously healthy child who becomes quite ill very quickly and requires intensive care treatment, and despite a high level of care does not recover.” ))))))

Baltimore student diagnosed with swine flu dies
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/reg/2009/10/01-26/Baltimore-student-diagnosed-with-swine-flu-dies.html
10/01/09

[DvdMom]

Maryn McKenna
http://www.globalpost.com/webblog/health/more-evidence-mrsa-involvement-h1n1-flu

September 28, 2009 22:21 ET
More evidence of MRSA involvement in H1N1 flu
When the H1N1 pandemic started at the end of last April, few of the case-patients seemed to have any secondary bacterial infections. This was unusual: In the 3 20th-c pandemics, the only ones for which there are good records, bacterial pneumonias seem to have accounted for a high percentage of illness and death. But H1N1 was unusual in a number of ways, and so health authorities wrote down the lack of bacterial infections as one more quirk of this novel strain.

Comes now the CDC to say that while that may have been the case in the spring, it is not now. In a conference call conducted Monday for doctors, which I covered for CIDRAP, the agency said that out of 77 deaths for which it had excellent autopsy data (a small subset of the deaths so far), 22, or 29%, had some bacterial co-involvement. Among the 22, the leading bacterium was S. pneumoniae (or Pneumococcus), but S. aureus was the second leading cause, with 7 cases, and 5 of those cases were MRSA.

(There is not yet anything online from that call to link to. A transcript is promised, and the CDC reps conducting the call said the data will be out soon in the MMWR. I’ll update when possible.)

In fact, there is an emerging literature on the role of bacterial infections in illness and deaths in this flu, and an emerging consensus that bacterial infections are playing a bigger and more serious role than was thought at first. At the ICAAC meeting two weeks ago (more on that soon), KK Johnson et al of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, N.Y., along with researchers from two other institutions, described two severe and ultimately fatal infections with H1N1 complicated by community-strain MRSA. The victims were children, a 9-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, who arrived at the emergency room several days after being seen for mild flu symptoms. Both children died of necrotizing pneumonia, one 11 days after being hospitalized and one 3 days. Cite (no link available): K.K. Johnson, H. Faden, P. Joshi, J. F. Fasanello, L. J. Hernan, B.P.Fuhrman, R.C.Welliver, J.K. Sharp and J. J. Schentag, “Two Fatal Pediatric Cases of Pandemic H1N1/09 Influenza Complicated by Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA),” poster G1-1558a.

Finally, there is one recent paper that is online, and it describes MRSA necrotizing pneumonia plus flu in an adult, not a child. It comes from Hong Kong, from a group that were the first to describe SARS pneumonia and thus have a lot of experience in surfing the early wave sof a pandemic. In this new paper in the Journal of Infection, they describe the death from necrotizing pneumonia of a healthy 42-year-old man who was in the hospital only 48 hours. They believe this is the first H1N1+MRSA death to be recorded in the medical literature, and so they use the opportunity to issue a warning to doctors: If a flu patient arrives with what appears to be secondary pneumonia, drugs that can treat MRSA must be prescribed, or the infection will flourish unchecked and death will result. The cite is: Cheng VCC, et al., Fatal co-infection with swine origin influenza virus A/H1N1 and community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, J Infect (2009), doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2009.08.021.

We’ve been talking since the beginning of this pandemic, and before that, about the unique hazards of MRSA + flu coinfection. (Archive of posts here.) It’s important ot understand that the bacterial pneumonias now being recorded are not only due to MRSA; Pneumococcus is playing a role as well. That is important because, unlike MRSA, we have vaccines against Pneumococcus; in the United States, one vaccine is approved for children and a second related one for adults. With no MRSA vaccine anywhere, and no H1N1 vaccine yet, it is worth considering whether to take a pneumococcal vaccine for additional protection as this pandemic unfolds.

[DvdMom]

WV:

BREAKING NEWS: Cabell Midland Student Dies of Possible Case of Swine Flu

Neither the school system or health department is releasing the name of the student who died at a Huntington hospital.

Posted: 10:12 PM Oct 3, 2009
Updated: 9:48 AM Oct 4, 2009

http://www.wsaz.com/huntington/headlines/63458407.html#

W.VA: HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A student a Cabell Midland High School has died of a possible case of swine flu.

That word Sunday morning from Jed Flowers, a spokesperson for Cabell County Schools.

Flowers tells WSAZ.com that the student was not in school on Thursday or Friday. He says counselors will be be available for students and faculty.

Saturday night, Dr. Harry Tweel, director of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, told WSAZ.com that a person had died at a Huntington hospital of a possible case of swine flu.

Tweel says that the H1N1 virus had not yet been confirmed in the patient, and that tests were still waiting to be confirmed.

Neither Tweel or Flowers is releasing the name of the student, or any other information on the case.

Flowers also tells WSAZ.com that the school system is working with the health department to see if any procedures relating to the flu need to be reviewed.

In the past few weeks, two other people have died of swine flu in Cabell County.

[DvdMom]

October 4, 2009

Sugary Mix Is Just What the Flu Doctor Ordered

By ANDREW POLLACK

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04cherry.html?_r=1&hp

[DvdMom]

02/Sep/09
Spread of Avian Influenza Viruses by Common Teal (Anas crecca) in Europe

Abstract

Since the recent spread of highly pathogenic (HP) H5N1 subtypes, avian influenza virus (AIV) dispersal has become an increasing focus of research. As for any other bird-borne pathogen, dispersal of these viruses is related to local and migratory movements of their hosts. In this study, we investigated potential AIV spread by Common Teal (Anas crecca) from the Camargue area, in the South of France, across Europe. Based on bird-ring recoveries, local duck population sizes and prevalence of infection with these viruses, we built an individual-based spatially explicit model describing bird movements, both locally (between wintering areas) and at the flyway scale. We investigated the effects of viral excretion duration and inactivation rate in water by simulating AIV spread with varying values for these two parameters. The results indicate that an efficient AIV dispersal in space is possible only for excretion durations longer than 7 days. Virus inactivation rate in the environment appears as a key parameter in the model because it allows local persistence of AIV over several months, the interval between two migratory periods. Virus persistence in water thus represents an important component of contamination risk as ducks migrate along their flyway. Based on the present modelling exercise, we also argue that HP H5N1 AIV is unlikely to be efficiently spread by Common Teal dispersal only.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007289

[DvdMom]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33158639/ns/health-more_health_news

Vaccine is on its way, but public still wary

Swine flu campaign faces key barriers: Unease, ambivalence

updated 9:48 p.m. ET, Sat., Oct . 3, 2009