HCW Fatalities

Carmichael, California

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2071046.html

A cancer nurse at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael has died of the H1N1 flu, becoming the first reported health care worker in California killed by the new variant of swine flu.

"We're very concerned that a nurse died," said Jill Furillo of the California Nurses Association, adding that the death underscores the need for strong infection controls to protect nurses and patients.

Mercy San Juan does not know whether the nurse caught the flu on the job or elsewhere, but it has notified all patients who came in contact with her when she might have been infectious, said hospital spokesman Bryan Gardner.

Karen Ann Hays died July 17 of a severe respiratory infection, pneumonia and H1N1, according to her death certificate. She also had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a staph infection that is resistant to many antibiotics.

Hays, 51, was a triathlete, skydiver and marathon runner – and a mom who could listen for hours to minute details of video games that any other adult would tune out, said her 19-year-old son Ian Hays.

"She'd listen to everything," he said. "She basically spent her whole life giving to other people."

Her partner, Dorel Borlovan, believes she probably caught the flu on the job, partly because she was there so much and partly because he was with her the rest of the time, but never became ill.

"Everybody thinks she got it from work," he said.

He described Hays as fit and athletic and said they went regularly to the Sierra to run, cycle and fish. She usually outran him, he said.

It's not surprising for an otherwise healthy person to die of H1N1, said Dr. Glennah Trochet, Sacramento County's public health officer.

"Nationwide all along there have been people who have died who did not have underlying medical conditions" such as obesity or pregnancy, she said. "When a disease is common enough and circulates enough, you will see all kinds of deaths."

Since the state began keeping track, the H1N1 flu has killed 80 Californians and hospitalized 699, according to figures updated Thursday on the state Department of Public Health Web site.

The state collects data on health care workers with H1N1, and this is the first reported death, said department spokesman Ken August.

Doctors are still watching and waiting to learn whether the new flu, which combines elements of viruses that infect pigs, birds and humans, will be more dangerous than common seasonal flu infections that kill about 36,000 Americans a year.

"Influenza, when combined with pneumonia, is the fifth or sixth most common cause of death in the United States every year," said Dr. Stuart Cohen, an infectious disease expert at UC Davis School of Medicine. "You don't want to make this into a panic situation."

At the same time, he said, this flu has a disturbing twist. Even though most people with H1N1 don't get very sick, the three deaths he has seen were troubling, progressing rapidly from minor symptoms to "total respiratory compromise" within a day.

"I have a healthy respect for this virus," Cohen said. "I graduated from medical school 30 years ago, I'm not a rookie, and these people looked a lot different from the standard flu patients we see who have died."

In Sacramento County, which like the state updates swine flu numbers every Thursday on its Web site, 50 people have been hospitalized with H1N1 so far. Five have died.

In an average year, influenza kills one to three people in Sacramento County, Trochet said.

Because the numbers are so small, and because H1N1 has been tracked more rigorously than standard flu, it's not clear whether five deaths so far means this flu will be worse, she said.

"It might be normal statistical fluctuation," Trochet said, "and our surveillance for this virus has been much more intense."

Right now, Trochet said, there are no reported clusters of H1N1 in Sacramento County. But the county, like the state and the federal governments, recently abandoned efforts to report all diagnosed cases.

Instead, health agencies have gone back to flu surveillance programs designed to capture a representative sample of cases, along with more extensive reporting of hospitalizations and deaths.

That makes it easier to miss small flurries of illness, such as one that appears to be plaguing the UC Davis Cancer Center.

An unusual number of nurses, nursing aides and clerical staff are out with flulike symptoms, but services have not been curtailed and "to the best of our knowledge, we haven't had transmission on site," Cohen said.

For nurses, small outbreaks at several hospitals have spurred calls for more masks, more sessions with those trained in how to fit the masks properly, better isolation of contagious patients and better sick leave policies.

"The public should be concerned," said Jan Rodolfo of the California Nurses Association. "When caregivers aren't protected adequately, they can be a source of infection," and when people do get sick, they need healthy nurses.

While at first hospitals were very worried about containing H1N1, vigilance slacked off as it became obvious most cases of the flu were not severe, said Jill Furillo of the nurses association. That is starting to change, she added.

"In recent weeks there has been a growing concern because nurses are caring for more and more patients who have H1N1," some with "very severe symptoms," she said.

Saudi Arabia

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009080145423

The victims were a 32-year-old Saudi male nurse in Qassim in the central region and a 25-year-old Saudi man in Asir in the western region.

The male nurse, Hadeed Al-Otaibi, died in Al-Rass Hospital in Qassim. He had driven from Taif to Qassim three weeks ago. Last Friday, he developed flu symptoms and went to Nafi Hospital in the Riyadh region, where he was hospitalized until Tuesday. He then left the hospital on his own accord and went to a private hospital in Qassim on Wednesday. There he was found to have severe lung inflammation and was transferred to the ICU in Al-Rass Hospital in Qassim. He was given flu medicines but he died on Friday.

(hat tip PFI/pixie)

New Zealand

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/2705831/Swine-flu-victim-first-health-worker-to-die

The 39-year-old woman who died of swine flu in Wellington Hospital this week was a front-line health worker at Hutt Hospital, officials have confirmed.

The woman - understood to have been a nurse in the children's ward - is believed to be the first health worker to die from the virus in New Zealand.

Her death from a rare complication on Monday, after 11 days in intensive care, is the 13th to be officially recorded.

The coroner is investigating another 20 suspected deaths from the virus.

The woman had suffered a miscarriage within the previous two months. Pregnancy is a known risk factor for viral complications. However, it is not known whether she had the virus at the time she miscarried.

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2009/08/10-hcws-with-novel-h1n1-in-kuwait.html

Although these are not fatalities, one is in critical condition. It is a wise to keep an eye on reports of HCW infections.

Six nurses and four doctors working at the Al-Amiri Hospital were transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, after they tested positive for Swine flu.

One of the patients was said to be in critical condition.

Meanwhile, management of the hospital has distributed masks to workers and visitors to avoid further spread of the disease.

Isolation rooms have been set in all governmental hospitals as a counter measure to the spread of swine flu, said a statement from the Health Ministry on Tuesday. After the meeting between Health Minister Dr. Hilal Al-Sayer and heads of health areas, official ministry spokesman Dr Yousif Al-Nisf told KUNA that the step was taken to counter the A(H1N1) virus, adding that Minister Al-Sayer called for increasing efforts against the disease.

Meanwhile, an official source at the ministry told KUNA that the ministry would pay the overtime for all those working in the evening shift at health centers. The official also affirmed that the fingerprint system would be used in the upcoming weeks to monitor the employee's commitment to the working hours.

West Virginia

http://www.wsaz.com/home/headlines/57268257.html

This nurse did have an underlying medical problem not disclosed in this article.

The Cabell-Huntington Health Department says a 51-year-old man has died of swine flu at a local hospital.

The health department says the man, who was from Kanawha County, had an underlying medical condition.

The victim's son, Brandon Bloomfield, tells WSAZ.com that his father, Michael Bloomfield, began feeling ill last week. He had been on life support since Saturday and died Thursday night.

Brandon says Michael worked as a registered nurse in the ER at St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington. He's been there a little less than a year, and previously worked as a nurse at CAMC in Charleston.

(hat tip pfi/aurora)

Abu Dhabi

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Health/10346575.html

The family of an Indian nurse, who died of H1N1 at a hospital in Al Ain last week, is distraught that they could not fulfil her last wish of seeing her newborn baby.

The family is also desperate to know how and from where she got infected with the virus. Sunita, sister-in-law of 27-year-old victim Deepthi Gopinath, and a nurse herself, said: "In our field, it is quite natural that we attend to suspected swine flu cases."

Sunita recalled that while hooked up to a ventilator in her dying moments, Deepthi called for paper and pen and wrote that she wanted to see her newborn baby. "But we could not fulfil her last wish because the baby was also on ventilator," Sunita said.

"Deepthi wrote again that she wanted to know the weight of the baby", she added. It is fortunate that the baby girl, who has been named Devika Nair, is on her way to recovery.

"The baby has to remain in the hospital for at least a month," Sunita said.

Deepthi was eight months pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital on August 22 with severe respiratory problems. She had initially experienced fever and throat pain on August 20 and was taken to a private hospital in Al Ain where she was getting pre-natal treatment, P.U. Anil Kumar, her brother-in-law, said.

"The doctor gave her some medicines, but she had to be taken to the same hospital on August 22."

The hospital referred her to a government hospital in Al Ain where she was transferred to the intensive care unit on the evening of August 24. "She underwent a Caesarean section and a baby girl was delivered on August 25 morning," Kumar said.

The mother and baby were put on ventilator on the same day, he explained.

On August 27, Deepthi's blood samples were taken for H1N1 tests, which confirmed the infection on August 30.

"She was quarantined that day but she died on September 1," Kumar said.

(hat tip pfi/monotreme)