Deaths of Students, School Nurses and Teachers Once the Schools Re-opened

indigo girl · Sep 9, 2009

Montgomery, Alabama

http://www.newsherald.com/articles/swine-77294-ala-troy.html

Alabama is facing an accelerating outbreak of swine flu that began about the time thousands of schoolchildren reported back to class in mid-August, the state health officer said Tuesday.
Dr. Don Williamson said cases of swine flu are being seen in Alabama and other Southern states because students in the region have been in school for a month, while they didn't start going back to class until after Labor Day in many other parts of the country.
"We've been at it for about a month. Our kids have been together on buses for about a month. Most of the rest of the nation is just going back to school today," said Williamson, the top health official for Alabama.
Williamson confirmed the fourth death from the virus in Alabama was an 18-year-old Troy University student, who died Friday. He said that case points out the difficulty of containing the H1N1 virus on college campuses. He said cases of the swine flu have been reported on almost every campus in the state.

indigo girl · Sep 9, 2009

Umatilla County, Oregon

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=290744&postcount=4

This patient has been hospitalized in Washington state. No doubt, the H1N1 is exacerbating whatever else this child is being treated for.

A Umatilla County teenager has tested positive for the swine flu and is in critical condition at a Washington hospital, Umatilla County Health Department officials said today.The teen, from the eastern part of the county, is being treated for other medical conditions as well, officials said.
“I am very concerned about this adolescent and want to encourage others to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves from both seasonal and H1N1 influenza,” said Genni Lehnert, Umatilla County Health Department administrator.
It’s the sixth confirmed swine flue case in the county. Five cases were reported in the spring, but the last one was June 29, she said.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/945/story/704606.html

indigo girl · Sep 9, 2009

Fairbanks, Alaska

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=11082842

State health officials confirmed swine flu as the cause in the death of a 10-year-old Fairbanks child late Saturday night, the state's first child fatality from the disease.
A school nurse sent the child home around noon on Thursday with flu symptoms and the child was admitted to the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital overnight.
After not responding well to treatment, the child was transported to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage and was pronounced dead late in the evening on Friday. The child was a student of Hunter Elementary School in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and did not have any underlying medical conditions.
"We know that there was a rapid influenza A test that was positive while the child was being evaluated and treated in Fairbanks, and that's a rapid test, so it's a good clue that the child had influenza but that test has false positives," Dr. Elizabeth Funk, the Alaska state epidemiologist, said Saturday.

indigo girl · Sep 10, 2009

DeKalb County, Georgia

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/DeKalb_School_Closed_Amid_Flu_Concerns_090909

This school for special needs kids finally closed when 46% of the students were out ill.

No testing done? But they had flu like s/s...

A DeKalb County school was shut down Wednesday amid concerns over the H1N1 virus. Margaret Harris Comprehensive will be closed for the rest of the week, because so many students were out sick.
According to school officials, 23 of the 50 students were out sick as well as five of the school's staff members. Even the principal was out sick.
The school is small and made up of special needs students who are high risk and could be more susceptible to tougher bouts of the H1N1 flu.
School officials did not confirm any cases of H1N1, but the students had flu like symptoms.
School officials sent home letter to parents tell them of the school closure. The school will reopen for both staff and students Monday, Sept. 14.

(hat tip pfi/aurora)

One child is hospitalized:

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/flu-134971.html

indigo girl · Sep 11, 2009

Lakeside Primary, Hot Springs,Arkansas

http://arkansasnews.com/2009/09/10/four-more-deaths-from-swine-flu-reported-in-arkansas/

I am reading that school started August 19th.

The Lakeside School District in Hot Springs notified parents Thursday that a female Lakeside first-grader had died. The notice included a statement from the girl’s father, Dan Davis, confirming she was diagnosed with swine flu, and a Hot Springs funeral home posted an obituary for Kharra Skye Davis, 6-year-old daughter of Dan and Becky Davis of Hot Springs, on its Web site.

(hat tip pfi)

She had a staph infection as well as H1N1. The flu seems to set these kids up for other infections, overwhelming the immune system.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=90746&catid=2

indigo girl · Sep 11, 2009

arkansas

a parent's plea and confusion
i want to highlight a comment that was left on labor day by a woman named valorie in arkansas (thank you for reading, valorie). she said:
i am just now learning about all of this and am very concerned about my 12 year old daughter. we were only 10 days into the school year, and she came down with the flu about a week ago. the rate at which it spread within her school as well as to me (her mother) and 2younger siblings was astonishing! we were all running high fevers within 24 hours of the onset of her first noticeable symptoms. her junior high (which has approximately 500 students) had between 130 and 140 students absent last week due to flu like symptoms. however, the school is saying this is not h1n1 because it is too early in the season to be the actual flu. (this is absurd in my opinion.) now, on our oldest daughter's 5th day into the illness she has developed an mrsa infection from a small boil on her tummy. within a day, it has swollen from a golf ball size to larger than a baseball in size. she now has 2 places of infection and is running a fever of about 101.7 on her 6th, almost 7th day of illness. her doctor has placed her on a high powered antibiotic, but she is feeling so ill that i am scared to death for her, especially reading about the complications from having both the flu and mrsa. do you think the oral antibiotics should take care of it, or do you think we need to have her admitted for iv antibiotics. i've just been surprised at how long this illness has lasted and how ill she still seems to be. no one seems to want to talk about the flu, much less any other possible complications in order to keep everyone else from panicking. i just want to get my daughter well and keep her safe. any advice? thanks so much for your time.
i wanted to highlight valorie's comment for a couple of reasons.
first, because it captures the way in which h1n1 has been ripping through schools in most places where school has returned to session. schools in the southeast tend to go back before the northeast or the west; in atlanta, where i used to live and where schools reopen long before labor day, h1n1 has gone through schools like a hot knife. second, it shows how little the education about flu being pushed out by the cdc (and by others including my colleagues at cidrap) has penetrated: there has been h1n1 flu all over the place this summer, and it's precisely because it is "too early in the season" that we know it is h1n1 and not the seasonal flu.
but what is most concerning and touching is valorie's confusion over which drugs her daughter should be taking, and whether her daughter's physician is giving enough attention to her illness. despite years of clinical experience, figuring out which drugs to give for mrsa is not easy. that's first because many of them are old and now generic-only drugs for which clinical trials (in the context of this disease) were never done; and second because community mrsa's resistance profile keeps changing as it picks up additional resistance factors.
the cdc dealt with this problem of what drugs to give in a meeting held in 2004 and a report issued in 2006. the report, going drug by drug, is here (caution, it's 24 pages) and a flow chart summarizing the findings is here. either is useful to have and to take to doctors if you feel uncomfortable about what is being prescribed or about a patient's lack of progress.

http://drugresistantstaph.blogspot.com/2009/09/parents-plea-and-confusion.html

indigo girl · Sep 11, 2009

Scottsboro, Alabama

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1251796518126570.xml&coll=1

State health officials said a Scottsboro boy, 11-year-old Alex Garcia, who died Monday morning was apparently the state's third fatality from swine flu.
Jackson County Coroner John David Jordan said the boy was taken to a local doctor's office Sunday and again Monday. He said the child was transferred to Highlands Medical Center in Scottsboro after he collapsed at the doctor's office.
Scottsboro police spokesman Scott Matthews said the boy was a student at Collins Middle School.

indigo girl · Sep 11, 2009

Livingston, Lousiana

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=11110132

Strep and swine flu is a very bad combination. We have heard of fatal cases of tonsilitis, strep and H1N1 in other countries. They are not saying tonsilitis in this case, but strep is involved as well as swine flu.

Because 3 tests were negative, they apparently did not treat her with Tamiflu within the first 48 hours. The tests are so unreliable that it has been suggested that physicians treat based on the clinical presentation.

We could learn from the experience of docs in Indonesia. They have seen many bird flu victims that tested negative repeatedly. They eventually learned to treat based on the history and what the patient looked liked because so many were not able to be accurately diagnosed until autopsy.

The 19-year-old senior at Denham Springs High School was focused on getting ready for the prom when something else took hold of her. At first, she was treated for run-of-the-mill strep throat. "She got better over the weekend. She felt better," said Ruthie. Once Taylor recovered, Ruthie let her get back to more exciting things, like planning for prom. "Taylor was unbelievable, amazing. You can ask anyone," she said.
A few days after returning to school, Taylor started feeling sick again, so Taylor's family took her back to the doctor. "We went back and she didn't get any better," said Terry Root, Taylor's uncle. Then, she was diagnosed with bronchitis and we treated that, so I don't think you can visit the doctor any more often than we did." Eventually, Taylor was sent to the hospital and put into intensive care. It was after three negative tests for Type A flu and days after her pneumonia diagnosis that doctors finally found she was infected with the H1N1 virus or swine flu. "By the time they were treating Taylor for H1N1, it was long past the effective period for the medicine," Root said.
Taylor's mom wonders if strep throat compromised her immune system, making her more susceptible to swine flu. She also wonders what would have happened if Taylor was treated for the flu sooner or if treatments like Tamiflu have saved her. "She would want us to help someone else. That would be her," said Ruthie.

(hat tip flutrackers/shiloh)

Katnip, RN · Sep 11, 2009

I'm trying not to let these stories get to me, but it is demoralizing to think about. This is just the beginning.

indigo girl · Sep 12, 2009

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/12/national/main5305509.shtml

A Cornell University student, among 520 diagnosed with influenza-type illness in the past three weeks, died Friday of complications related to swine flu, university officials said.
President David Skorton released a statement Friday evening saying Warren J. Schor, a 20-year-old economics and management major from Clinton Corners, N.Y., died at a hospital.
Cornell spokesman Thomas Bruce said privacy regulations prevented discussion of whether there were any other health issues that contributed to Schor's death.

(hat tip pfi/pixie)

indigo girl · Sep 12, 2009

Sebring, Florida

http://www.newssun.com/0916-tc-h1n1-swine-highlands

Not sure if this is swine, but suspect it is...

"(He) died this morning but there is no conformation if it was due to H1N1 swine flu," Thomas Moran, planning consultant for the Highlands County Health Department said Friday. "From what we understand he did have a fever and flu-like symptoms."
"We learned that a parent was transporting his son to the hospital with severe stomach cramps and flu-like (symptoms,)" Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton said in the press release. "While en route to Florida Hospital the parent observed that the child was not breathing and pulled into the parking lot and dialed 911 while attempting to give CPR."
Emergency Medical Services personnel attempted to resuscitate Hamilton while on the way to Highlands Regional Medical Center. They performed CPR for nearly an hour before he was pronounced dead at 5:36 a.m. at the hospital.
The health department said Hamilton had no reported pre-existing conditions or chronic illnesses other than flu-like symptoms and a high fever the past few days, but would not speculate on the cause of death at this point.

(hat tip flutrackers/chuck)