1st child death from flu reported in Ohio

Nurse Deb­bie Smerk, right, admin­is­ters a flu shot to Pamela Black at Metro­Health in Cleve­land. Ohio health author­i­ties reported Fri­day that a child has died from flu com­pli­ca­tions, as the state’s flu-associated hos­pi­tal­iza­tions con­tinue to climb at much higher rates than the last two flu sea­sons. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Tony Dejak)

DAN SEWELL

Asso­ci­ated Press

CINCINNATI — A child has died from flu com­pli­ca­tions in Ohio, the first con­firmed flu-related child death of the sea­son in the state, health offi­cials reported Fri­day as influenza suf­fer­ers take up hos­pi­tal beds at much higher rates than the last two flu seasons.

Health Depart­ment spokes­woman Tessie Pol­lock said the state wouldn’t release any other infor­ma­tion about the child.

There have also been reports of a hand­ful of adult deaths linked to the flu, but the state depart­ment doesn’t tally those deaths because there are often under­ly­ing health con­di­tions involved, she said. Among the reports was that of a 22-year-old Wright State Uni­ver­sity stu­dent who had been hos­pi­tal­ized last week with the flu. Health offi­cials in west­ern Ohio are still inves­ti­gat­ing her death but say she appeared oth­er­wise healthy.

Ohio is among 47 states with wide­spread flu out­breaks, and health offi­cials blame the flu for at least 20 child deaths nation­ally. In Ohio, there were no child deaths recorded from the flu in the last sea­son, and only one the pre­vi­ous season.

Flu-associated hos­pi­tal­iza­tions are run­ning at much higher rates than the last two sea­sons. The state reports there have been 1,922 since Octo­ber in Ohio, com­pared with 86 a year ago and 175 the pre­vi­ous sea­son. This sea­son started early; influenza is usu­ally at its worst in late Jan­u­ary and February.

Some hos­pi­tals have begun lim­it­ing vis­i­tors and hand­ing out sur­gi­cal masks to try to slow the spread, and health offi­cials are urg­ing peo­ple to stay home if they are sick and to keep ill chil­dren out of day cares and schools.

With Miami University’s spring semes­ter begin­ning next week, school offi­cials are brac­ing for a spread of ill­nesses that have already hit many employees.

“Everybody’s been sick. It’s mis­er­able,” said Rit­ter Hoy, a Miami spokes­woman. She said the flu and bron­chi­tis have been sweep­ing through staff, includ­ing a long-time school offi­cial who was out sick a full week after going years with­out tak­ing a sick day.

The Oxford-based school in south­west Ohio has some 17,000 stu­dents and 4,000 employees.

“I’m sure it’s going to be really, really bad,” she said of the return of a full cam­pus. “All it takes is touch­ing one door handle.”

Pol­lock noted that the state is com­ing off an unusu­ally mild sea­son a year ago, and two rel­a­tively light sea­sons after the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

“You can’t make a state­ment about the sever­ity of a flu sea­son until it’s over,” she said.

The Health Depart­ment advises peo­ple to get flu shots if they haven’t already and says there are suf­fi­cient sup­plies of the vac­cine avail­able around the state. While flu shots aren’t a guar­an­tee against catch­ing the flu, Pol­lock said the vac­cine seems to be a good match for cur­rent strains.

Posted by AP News on Jan 11 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.