Report: Toddler is first U.S. swine flu death

[Dr.Phool]

Source: MSNBC.com

breaking news
msnbc.com news services
updated 4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A government official confirmed the first U.S. death from the new H1N1 swine flu on Wednesday, a 23-month-old child who died in Texas.

It is the first death from swine flu reported outside Mexico, the country hardest hit by the influenza outbreak. The disease is suspected of killing more than 150 people in Mexico and sickening over 2,400 there.

The official gave Reuters no other details on the case. U.S. officials have confirmed 65 cases of swine flu, most of them mild.

(More at link)

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30471035/

---

Here we go.

[qanda]

1. About 36,000 Americans die on average per year from the complications of flu.

Just a reminder to keep our wits about us.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm

On Edit: My heart goes out to the family of that child. I could not imagine losing one of my children.

[JI7]

2. i'm guessing most of them are older people

and people with other health problems.

[Hannah Bell]

3. or young children.

[HereSince1628]

4. Usually it also claims a large number of infants and toddlers.

[liberal N proud]

5. And how many cases of swine flu have been reported in the US

50 or something like that.

And the media has us all in a full panic, now imagine how they will exploit this sad case.

[Dr.Phool]

6. That's what I'm saying.

Here it comes. The feeding frenzy.

[HereSince1628]

8. Analogies always fail...but here goes...

How big was the match that started the campfire that spread to the forest and destroyed the subdivision that Jack built?

Health departments concern about this flu isn't an issue decided by just the number of cases.

Public health officials became concerned because

it seemed to be a new variant (meaning lots of people wouldn't have resistance to it--which is to say there is a lot of dry fuel in the path of the fire),


that had high person to person transmissibility (meaning potential to spread quickly through a susceptible population--as when brushfires accelerate as they burn uphill)

and it had the capacity to kill people of an age and health status (healthy 20-45 year olds) that influenza usually doesn't kill (as when a fire doesn't stay on the forest floor but moves up into the canopy where it will kill the parts of the trees usually untouched by fires on the forest floor).



The combination of this flu's features looked very dangerous on paper and it motivated agencies at all levels.

Doing nothing until there are thousands of cases would be like waiting for a forest fire before you make sure the campfire was really cold.

I know this analogy will fail when pressed. But I think people are more educated and sensitive to the risks and danger of fires than they are to influenza.

[vaberella]

9. Actually far more than that..

There's about 86+ or and the crazy thing is I heard them say...was it Bloomberg unsure that several hundreds in New York "may" be infected with it. The thing also is that it's spreading and it's world wide. You might see it as panic but I think it is something I'll take a bit more seriously. I'm far from being in panic and I actually don't think the media is making us panic...they're doing pretty well on this one. I just think it is important though.

[hedgehog]

16. Here's where I'm coming from: everyone in my family tends to

develop asthma when we get a viral respiratory infection. Even a simple cold can mean several weeks of coughing and short breath. We are religious about getting flu shots in August or September as soon as each year's batch is available. This flu is apparently very contagious and there is no vaccine. We are concerned, but not panicking.

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. The difference with a pandemic-potential flu is most fatalities are healthy people 20-40

due to an over-reaction by the healthy person's immune system that causes pneumonia or other complications resulting in death.

The oft-quoted 36,000 avg. annual flu deaths of mostly elderly and infants is meaningless in this case- those people die because of already weakened immune systems. Most of us have had a non-pandemic flu in our lives, and so have some level of immunity that mitigates the intensity of our immune system's response to the "seasonal", non-pandemic flu that comes around every year.

In a pandemic (as this one has the potential to become), the first wave is mild,and those victims have a level of immunity. Then the virus mutates, becomes more virulent, and the subsequent waves of infections are more deadly, as those victims have no immunity. Eventually, the virus peaks in virulence/vaccines take effect (otherwise the entire world population would die), and the pandemic subsides.

Links?

Go to CDC, WHO, and Wikipedia (under 1918 Spanish flu).

Yes, keep your wits about you, but don't use Apples (36,000 avg. deaths) to describe Oranges (pandemic flu)

[Justyce]

13. From what I've read and heard, the biggest fear

is this Fall. I read they're thinking it will sort of fizzle during the summer months but come back with a vengeance during the Fall, like the 1918 flu. This isn't the common flu. But *hopefully* they'll have enough updated flu vaccines by then. I agree we shouldn't panic, but I think we should be cautiously aware, though it's hard not to feel a little scared when it's starting to happen in your own state...

[vaberella]

7. Good thing I didn't post. I just read this now. n/t

[onehandle]

10. Panic!

No thanks, MSM.

[Forkboy]

12. Where we going?

[inwiththenew]

14. Not to dimish his death

But the child was a Mexican citizen that was brought here for treatment after he was sick is what I read on a couple other reports.

[Cush]

15. the child was from Mexico, were visting familiy in Houston

per MSNBC a minute ago

edit: see post above