6 Alabama kids were on life support with flu - page 5

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These were otherwise healthy children who came down with a severe strain of seasonal flu. The original link to the local news is included but takes forever to load so that I decided to use a link... Read More

Feb 17, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

The symptoms of severe muscle pain in pediatric flu cases is not unknown. How many clinicians would have recognized what disease this child had to initiate the appropriate tx early enough to save her? Sometimes, even with the right treatment, we can not save everyone. Of course, now they know to look for these cases.
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...1&postcount=16

Could dialysis save these two cases? Or is this a separate complication where ECMO would have been appropriate?
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...6&postcount=17

Last edit by indigo girl on Feb 17, '07
Feb 17, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

According to this, at least one child had been vaccinated. Perhaps not soon enough? Fifteen cases hospitalized, that seems rather unusual.

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...2&postcount=19

Last edit by indigo girl on Feb 17, '07
Feb 17, '07
Occupation: Adolescent psych Specialty: Adolescent Psych, PICU ; Joined: Feb '03; Posts: 2,164; Likes: 384

I don't think this years vaccine is covering what strain is going around. I have had several nursing school friends (all of whom had been vax'ed back on Oct or Nov) get the flu here in the past month. We had our state epidemiologist come and talk to our class and he siad that kids are being hit particularly hard with this years flu, adults not as bad. Lots of kids out of school with the flu.

It has started to kinda worry me about my kids.

Last edit by marilynmom on Feb 17, '07
Feb 17, '07
Joined: Oct '01; Posts: 9,619; Likes: 14,058

Indigo girl,

Thanks for the information. The local press here in Omaha reported that the strain which caused the death of the 11 year-old girl from Lincoln was one of the 3 included in this year's vaccine. I have no idea what the vaccination rate is in our area among children, but flu-like symptoms are rampant in our schools now. Omaha is a relatively small city (pop. 400K), so having 15 children hospitalized with influenza does indeed sound significant. We're also in the midst of a long streak of bitterly cold weather (3 weeks of near and below zero temps.). That can't be helping any.
Feb 17, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

I am including only cases that do not appear to have underlying health conditions. I did not realize that there is apparently very little tracking information prior to 2003 pediatric flu cases, but several of these articles mention this fact.

For Vancouver, I am using a link from curevents.com as the original does not seem to work:
http://www.curevents.com/vb/showpost...8&postcount=19

Bellevue, Washington
http://www.komotv.com/news/5913586.html

Last edit by indigo girl on Feb 17, '07
Feb 18, '07
From: US ; Joined: Jan '07; Posts: 271; Likes: 224

FluTrackers have not been regularly following pediatric flu deaths. I put this list together the other day of most of the recent pediatric deaths. Any comments?

Minnesota MN
Child 1, ( 8_) died (between Jan 18 - Feb 1),
Child 2, (17 months_), died (between Jan 18 - Feb 1)
Lucio Satar, ( 8M), died (1/30/2007?) St. Paul, MN, pneumonia, a complication he developed after coming down with the flu.
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...36&postcount=7
http://www.health.state.mn.us/news/p...flu020807.html

Child (8_) died Mid February 2007, Duluth, MN (4th seasonal flu fatality)
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...78&postcount=1

Washington (WA)
Sarah J. Horner (7F) died 2/5/2007, Seattle WA - myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart caused by viral infections like the flu.
Marija E. Alumbaugh ( 8F), died 2/14/2007, Kent WA - myocarditis due to Influenza A
http://www.curevents.com/vb/showthread.php?t=69440

Nebraska (NE)
Ahn T. "Anna" Do (11F) died 2/10/2007, Omaha, Nebraska

Alabama (AL)
1 child died? December 2006?

New York (NY)
child (10M), Syracuse, NY died (1/9/2007?)
"Pediatric flu deaths are rare, with only 35 across the country last year. "
http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_articl...?storyid=43985

Kansas (KS)
Xena Anastasia Fogle, (11F) died 2/11/2007, Wichita, KS, Influenza A
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/5888781.html
Feb 19, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

Thanks so much for the list Al. I am particularly interested in the school age cases because this is a group that do not normally die of influenza if there are no prior existing conditions. The other thing that bothers me are the unexpected symptoms. What parent would have known that this was influenza in Anna Doh's case? I know that flu can cause aches and pains but I would never have guessed muscle death. Now, of course, we know.

I just want to quote Monotreme from Pandemic Information Forum:
"We will have to wait for more information regarding the subtype of Flu A that is causing these cases to know for sure what is going on. One possibility is that there is a new strain that it is infecting relatively few people but which can cause severe disease when it infects children. The only way to determine if this is happening is to compare the sequences of the strains that caused severe disease with sequences from strains that caused only mild disease. Hopefully the CDC is doing this and we will get a report soon."

Do we know for sure that these cases are all influenza A? It does seem likely though.
Feb 19, '07
Specialty: LTC ; From: US ; Joined: May '06; Posts: 412; Likes: 108

The mother of one of the kids in Omaha said her son had the B strain. He had the flu shot.

http://www.ketv.com/health/11052535/detail.html
Feb 19, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

Quote from natrgrrl

The mother of one of the kids in Omaha said her son had the B strain. He had the flu shot.

http://www.ketv.com/health/11052535/detail.html

Thanks for that info, natrgrrl. How frightening for that family this must have been. No word on prior existing condition in the article.
Feb 28, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

This link gives info on some recent pediatric influenza mortalities in Texas.
The younger child had prior existing conditions, but the 16 year old did not.
Children and young adults are the most effected by this seasonal flu.
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...61&postcount=1
Mar 5, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

It is just bewildering to me that influenza could do this. This 15 year old from Texas died the end of February. No mention of any prior existing conditions.
She was athletic.
http://www.kfdm.com/onset?id=19229&t...e=article.html

Here is another unusual case. Seizures, and a heart attack in a 24 year old from influenza? I know that this happens, but I just do not get it.

http://www.singtomeohmuse.com/viewto...?p=17606#17606
Apr 29, '07
Occupation: visiting nurse Specialty: Too many to list ; From: US ; Joined: Mar '06; Posts: 5,909; Likes: 1,741

This is a very sad story. I just found out about this case today.
I thought that we were done with fatal pediatric flu cases for this year.

This 15 year old did not have any prior existing conditions that can be discerned from these articles. She was very athletic.
My heart goes out to her family.

They did everything right for her. She got early treatment, and an antiviral was started that day.

None of the viral sequences from any of the pediatric fatalities in this country have been released.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...d=478976&rfi=6
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=22456

Quote from www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18233700&BRD=2303&PAG=461&dept_id= 478976&rfi=6

Her mom retold the sad story that started on the evening of Thursday, April 5. "That night she played a lacrosse game after school. She came home and felt fine. She went back out to Police Explorers and when she came home she felt tired, like she was getting a cold. So she went to bed early. At about 9 p.m.," she said.
Jessy woke up early the next morning complaining of feeling ill, and she vomited. They went to see Jessy's longtime pediatrician, Dr. Jason Perkel at Torrington Winsted Pediatrics. At 9 a.m. he did a flu swab because she was complaining that her chest hurt. It came back clear. There was nothing in her lungs.
"A little while later, my husband took her to get her medicine and a milkshake that she wanted," recalled Mrs. Pierzga. Later that afternoon, the shake came back up and Jessy was still complaining of chest pain.
In the next bout of sickness, "there was a little bit of blood in her vomit. I got concerned but it wasn't a lot but she wasn't coughing a lot. We took her to the emergency room in Torrington and she was complaining more and more. They did a chest X-ray at about 10 p.m. and at that time her right lung was completely filled with fluid. Her oxygen level was low. Thankfully, Dr. Perkel came down and said suggested calling Connecticut Children's Medical Center," she said. They sent a medical team, including a respiratory doctor, down by ambulance and they took Jessy back with them after putting a tube in her throat.
"Once we got there she went downhill and was on a respirator. Her vital signs and blood pressure wouldn't stabilize. About eight hours later she was airlifted to Boston Children's Hospital via Lifestar helicopter. The two teams of doctors stayed in touch the whole time," she said.

(hat tip PFIF)

Last edit by indigo girl on Jun 9, '07
Apr 29, '07
Occupation: newborn nursery Specialty: 8 year(s) of experience in nursery, L and D ; Joined: Feb '07; Posts: 1,020; Likes: 341

So sad.

6 Alabama kids were on life support with flu - page 5

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