More on the 5 year old in Otay Mesa reported yesterday...
Swine flu death stuns Otay Mesa school
By Karen Kucher
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
10:34 a.m. October 15, 2009
OTAY MESA — Stunned by the news that a 5-year-old student at the campus died from swine flu, parents dropping their children off at Howard Pence Elementary School on Thursday talked of making sure their children were immunized and reminding them to wash their hands frequently.
A kindergartner at the school who has not been identified died early Saturday at Rady Children’s Hospital. The girl had suffered from flu symptoms for two days and collapsed in the hospital waiting room. Doctors later determined that the H1N1 flu virus had infected her heart muscle.
Parents learned Monday that a child who attended the Otay Mesa school had died but didn’t know the cause until Wednesday, when county health officials held a news conference. Many said they planned to inquire about flu vaccinations for their children immediately.
“I was terrified,” said Brandi Ware, as she walked her kindergartener, Mikalia, and her first-grader, Mikiah, to school. “I’m planning to go get the vaccinations as soon as possible.”
Ware said she didn’t know the child who died or whether she was in the same classroom as her youngest daughter. She said she was concerned because “they play on the same playground” and said she planned to monitor her own children’s health closely.
“She’s a 5-year-old; her life is just beginning,” she said of the girl who died. “She was just a baby.”
Larry Norvell, who was walking his grandniece, Dnajn Zackie, to school, said he was shocked by the news. Dnajn, who is in kindergarten, said her class made a card for the parents of the child who died. “We made a card for her parents so they could feel a little better,” the 5-year-old said.
Norvell said he didn’t think about keeping his grandniece out of school. “Things like this happen. We can’t prevent them sometimes,” he said.
Richard Inzunza, a father of three boys, said he and his wife plan to make sure their children get flu shots this week if possible. “I told my wife, ‘I would rather see them cry for a few hours than not cry for the rest of their lives,’ ” he said.
He said his son Christian is a kindergartner, but the boy doesn’t know if the girl who died was in his class or not. He said he may take his son to the doctor to be checked out, just to be safe.
The elementary school had just concluded a two-week break when parents learned of the child’s death. Inzunza and other parents said they think that the girl was possibly infected during the break, rather than when she was at school.
“It is tough. I wouldn’t want to be in the parents’ footsteps — it’s devastating,” he said. “It is hitting close to home now.”
Laura Garcia, who has a second-grader at the school, said she planned to buy hand sanitizer to put in her daughter’s backpack. “I just told her, ‘Try to wash your hands as much as you can,’ ” she said.
Russell Coronado, director of student services for the South Bay Union School District, said there haven’t been any unusual spikes in absences reported at the school, which has about 600 students ranging from kindergarten through sixth grade. He said staff members are trying to make sure students have “a normal day for our kids.”
Several letters have been sent home to parents, telling them of the student’s death and reviewing the importance of washing hands and using hand sanitizers. The latest letter reminded parents to keep sick children who have a fever home for at least 24 hours after the fever disappears.
“We come to think of each student as a member of our school family, and any loss affects us all deeply,” Superintendent Carol Parish wrote in the letter.
Union-Tribune
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/15/san-diego-8212-stunned-news/?health&zIndex=183256
H1N1 flu causes unusual damage to lungs - studies
Thu Oct 15, 2009 11:28pm IST
WASHINGTON Reuters) - The new pandemic H1N1 flu may cause blood clots and other unusual damage in the lungs and doctors need to be on the lookout, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
Two studies published in the American Journal of Roentgenology show the need to check X-rays and CT scans for unusual features, and also point out swine flu can be tricky to diagnose in some of the sickest patients.
H1N1 flu is causing a pandemic, and while it is not particularly deadly, it is sickening many younger adults and older children who usually escape the worst effects of seasonal flu.
“It is therefore essential that clinicians be able to recognize possible cases of pandemic H1N1 influenza in high-risk groups so that they order the appropriate diagnostic tests, begin specific antiviral therapy, and prepare to provide intensive supportive measures as needed,” Dr. Daniel Mollura of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland and colleagues wrote.
One middle-aged man who died was not diagnosed until after death, but unusual findings on his X-rays may be able to help doctors save other, similar patients.
Mollura’s team found irregularities called ground-glass opacities in the patient’s lungs using a CT scan. Although the patient was severely ill and had a fever, he tested negative for flu and doctors did not treat him for it.
The man died five days after he went into the hospital and the autopsy confirmed he had swine flu. The lung lesions seen on his CT scan matched lung damage done by the virus, Mollura and colleagues said.
In another study in the same journal, CT scans of patients with severe cases of swine flu showed many had pulmonary emboli, which block the arteries in the lungs, a team at the University of Michigan found.
Anticoagulant drugs can break up these clots and save lives.
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-43194320091015