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Swine flu cases in Del. rise sharply

110 new victims confirmed last week; hospital sees record number of kids

October 16, 2009
By HIRAN RATNAYAKE
The News Journal
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091016/HEALTH/910160371/1006/NEWS

A Wilmington school closes. A Rockland emergency room treats a one-day record number of children. And the number of confirmed cases keeps climbing.

Barely two weeks into flu season, the number of confirmed cases of swine flu nearly tripled from one week to the next, according to Delaware public health officials. And four people became the first in the state to be hospitalized with the virus since the season began Oct. 4.

“We are clearly seeing an increase and next week we could continue to see even more confirmed cases and even more reports of influenza-like illness,” said Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the state public health division.

She was referring to the state’s most recent report that showed 179 lab-confirmed cases of swine — or H1N1 — flu during the week of Oct. 4 to 10. That’s 110 more confirmed cases than the week before.

Public health officials also said there were 131 new reports of influenza-like illnesses from the 20 primary care doctors asked by the state to submit their observations each week.

The virus caused a record number of children to visit Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Rockland on Sunday. On Wednesday, the Kuumba Academy Charter School became the first Delaware school this academic year to close because of swine flu.

Only a fraction of the 520,000 doses of swine flu vaccine allocated for Delaware have arrived, even as some school districts began alerting parents they can have their children vaccinated in school.

Public health officials said 32,900 doses of injectable swine flu vaccine and 5,769 doses of the nasal spray known as FluMist were expected to arrive next week. Those doses would be for family physicians and pediatricians to make available to children.

Four of the five children of Carol Dowder of Port Penn are considered more susceptible to swine flu because they are 24 or younger. She also is concerned about her 8-month-old granddaughter.

“With swine flu, you hear that it’s killing more kids,” she said. “I’m hearing about it every day and noticing that a lot more people are getting sick.”

There have been no reports of swine flu-related deaths in Delaware.

However, three of the four people who were hospitalized in the state were children — ages 11 months, 11 years and 12 years. The other person was 44. All four have recovered, Rattay said.

“That’s a big jump from 69 to 179,” said Dr. Hugh Bonner, a primary care physician at Wilmington’s St. Francis Hospital, of the lab-confirmed cases. “It’s pretty frightening and I’ll be interested to see what happens over the next month or so.”

A lot could depend on how much vaccine starts arriving in Delaware.

The state will get about 54,000 doses by the end of October, less than half of the 110,000 it expected a month ago.

‘Production issues’

Rattay said the drop is because of “production issues” with manufacturers, who are turning out vaccine supplies that are 30 percent to 40 percent of the normal amount.

Yet, Rattay said, she is certain the swine flu vaccine will be ready for school-age children next month. Clinics at schools will begin in early November and run for four to six weeks.

“We’re really focusing a lot of public health nurses on this [school] campaign,” she said.

A news release issued Thursday by Indian River School District said the public health division would be scheduling swine flu vaccination clinics there beginning the week of Nov. 2. Rattay said that is not the case.

Dave Maull, Indian River School District spokesman, said the district was told by the public health division that the week of Nov. 2 was the date when the vaccination program would begin. The Sussex County district has 15 schools and 8,700 students. Swine flu hasn’t hit it hard, as its attendance rate through last Friday was 94 percent, only slightly less than normal.

Rattay said the public health division has told districts that the school vaccination program will begin Nov. 2.

“But that does not mean that the kids in the Indian River schools will be vaccinated in that first week,” she said. “Nobody has been given a specific date. ... We will definitely follow up with them and make sure they understand the process for developing our schedule.”