Boulder County reports third swine flu death (Colorado)
http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_13548303
10/12/2009
A third Boulder County resident has died from a case of the swine flu, providing more urgency as health officials encourage people to get vaccinated.
Doses of the H1N1 vaccine started arriving in the county last week.
“Our goal is for as many people to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Nisha Alden, Boulder County Public Health’s communicable disease division manager. “We want to get the most vulnerable people first.”
After receiving an initial batch of about 2,900 doses of the FluMist nasal spray vaccine last week, Boulder County is providing the vaccine this week to children ages 2 to 4 at its immunization clinics.
The health department also is distributing the vaccine to more than 90 Boulder County health care providers, who should have the vaccine by next week.
The most recent victim of the H1N1 flu was a 4-year-old boy who died Thursday. He became ill with flu-like symptoms in September and was later admitted to Children’s Hospital. He had mild underlying medical conditions.
The first Boulder County person to die after getting swine flu was a boy, whose age was between 10 and 17, on Sept. 15. That boy also had underlying health conditions that contributed to his death.
The second victim was a 40-year-old woman who died Sept. 28 at Longmont United Hospital and had “significant underlying health conditions.”
Alden said more than half of those hospitalized in Boulder County for swine flu have been younger than 18.
As of Oct. 3, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had reported 11 swine flu deaths statewide.
The vaccine is now only available in the form of FluMist nasal spray. Injectable vaccines, which can be given to children from 6 months to 2 years along with the general population, are expected to arrive the week of Oct. 19.
Boulder County’s vaccine doses will be distributed to prioritized target groups. Health care providers are a top priority, along with children ages 6 months to 4 years, pregnant women, people who have household contact with children younger than 6 months, and children ages 5 to 18 with underlying health issues.
Next in line will be emergency medical services professionals, children ages 6 to 24 and non-elderly adults with underlying health problems.
Eventually, health department officials said, Boulder County plans to offer the swine flu vaccine at clinics in schools, at the University of Colorado and at the county’s Public Health offices in Boulder and Longmont.
Children between the ages of 6 months and 18 years can receive the vaccine at regularly scheduled Boulder County Public Health immunization clinics.
Venezuela’s Health Ministry confirms 89 deaths of AH1N1 virus
http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/10/12/en_pol_esp_venezuelas-health-m_12A2884851.shtml
Every day, the negative effects of the AH1N1 virus spread in Venezuela. According to the most recent update of the Ministry of Health, released on October 8, this illness has caused 89 deaths and has infected at least 1,711 people.
In just one week, the influenza A virus subtype H1N1 infected 71 people and caused the death of four others in the South American country. Two of them were reported on October 6, one on October 3 and the other on October 2.
The Minister of Health did not provide any information about them, whether they were healthy people or have debilitating diseases; whether they were pregnant, obese, or vulnerable population. The Ministry did not report either the area where they lived.
The regions with the highest number of cases are the most populated in the country, as usual in pandemics.