First fatality of Swine Flu occurred in the State
The pandemic of swine flu caused by H1N1 virus has taken its first toll in Massachusetts, according to health officials of Boston. A 30 year old woman of Boston perished of the swine flue on Sunday, which has already claimed 45 lives nationwide.
The unfortunate woman was young and had all the fitting demographics found on worst-hit victims. Health officials are of the opinion that the women’s medical conditions existed otherwise, would have caused complications of the virus infection leading to death.
Disease specialists at the Boston Public Health Commission were unable to provide the identity of the woman, owing to patient confidentiality laws, but said the woman was gravely ill on arrival at the Boston hospital on 5th June, immediately taken to intensive-care unit, but died inspite of best efforts on Sunday. The hospital was identified as Boston Medical Center and the woman has one child, as per information gathered from officials requesting anonymity.
The executive director of the health agency said as per preliminary review of the patient, the woman should have sought hospital care previously. City disease trackers have taken investigation of the matter, whether the woman had some other problems of health, which made her acutely susceptible to complications of the HI1N1 virus, which is the scientific name of swine flue.
Alerts were sent throughout the city yesterday morning about the case, and till late night there was not much progress in collecting the facts behind. No clue could be found by city officials about where the woman worked – hospital, school, or a doctor’s office etc. – prospective places for catching the virus.
John Auerbach, the Massachusetts public health commissioner, commented that the fatality is a reminder as how swine flu can be very serious and also expects there would be other people seriously affected with H1N1 virus and they would also, sadly, die.
Statistics show that Boston recorded 441 cases confirmed of swine flu virus infection from late April and out of them 54 patients should have spent one night atleast in some hospital. All over the State, cases definitely identified for swine flu through laboratory testing are 1,153, of which 80 resulted in hospitalization.
However these figures are only showing a small fraction from the total cases stricken by the disease, from its first appearance on the State about six weeks back. In respect of most people infected by the virus, the symptoms are similar to the seasonal flu such as fever, cough, pains and aches, without any serious side effects and most of the cases did not follow a visit to the doctor.
Because of this, disease specialists painstakingly cautioned the public, at the same time not to create panic, to be more vigilant about the symptoms of the flu.
The executive director of the city health agency, Barbara Ferrer, assured that a majority cases of infection by H1N1 flu virus are only mild cases and they could fully recover from the disease, and expressed grief over the fatality occurred today.
It is surprising the disease detectives, as to why the Northeastern United States especially has been hit hard by the H1N1 virus. As many as 16 deaths have been reported in New York City alone last week.
Dr. Anita Barry, director of the Infectious Disease Bureau at the Boston Public Heath Commission informed that compared to other parts of the US country, Boston is witnessing enormous amount of H1N1 virus activity and the reasons are not clear. Comparatively the numbers at Boston are quite high than anywhere else, except New York City. This is baffling the officials, among several mysteries that are being investigated into swine flu pandemic, originally migrated from Mexico and spreading rapidly to other countries in the world.
The swine flu virus is mysteriously attacking children and younger adults disproportionately, sparing largely the older people, and specialists are trying to find out the clue. Three out of four confirmed cases of H1N1 virus infection in Massachusetts are people aged 25 and younger. With the result, schools hundreds in numbers have closed temporarily, since the virus moves deadly fast.
In the case of usual seasonal flue, mostly elderly people are prone to complications, and an estimated 36000 US citizens are killed every year by it.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, former New York City health commissioner and presently director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regretted that the H1N1 virus seems to be spreading faster with school going children and that is the unfortunate news we have never accustomed to. And the good news on this sorry state of affairs is lots of elders have been spared.
This virus is most troublesome for people suffering with other complications like asthma, kidney disease, diabetes, serious cardiovascular conditions etc. Actually a review of such cases by disease specialists in New York City shows, that over 80 percent of hospitalization cases of swine-flue victims with these complications, have been prime targets for the virus.
In this background, the medical history of the fatality case of 30 year old Boston woman gets importance in the investigation by the officials. It is to be found that whether she had serious complications underlying already, as in the case of other victims showing a pattern or some new fact will come to the floor by her death.
The answers to these doubts will enable physicians like Dr. Lauren Smith, medical director of the state Department of Public Health, determine in crafting their message to the public at large. Dr. Smith asserts that the virus infection has been going on for some time now, to cause fatigue on vigilance tactics and the medical fraternity is walking a fine line side-by-side reminding people that it is relatively only mild illness, not to get panicked. At the same time, she cautioned that people who already have underlying illnesses, should immediately talk to their physician, in case they develop symptoms of H1N1 swine flu infection.
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Comments
Swine flu is bad.
Swine flu can infected everyone from animal and people.
In my country there is 2 people is died.
first, I wan to condolences to the woman and the other people who victimize by this flu. I think we must found the vaccine as soon as possible.
I hate when i heard about awine flu pendemic. I hope it will recovered by all government in every nation. We don’t want to affected by this virus. winnie the pooh coloring pages
Three out of four confirmed cases of H1N1 virus infection in Massachusetts are people aged 25 and younger
The swine flu virus is mysteriously attacking children and younger adults disproportionately, sparing largely the older people, and specialists are trying to find out the clue
This is a very good article to alert everyone from the flu. I wish this virus be eliminated for ever. My cousin was in coma for 3 days and the doctor told that it 90% over. By gods grace he was back to normal.
whoa swine flu is very dangerous. The virus can infect someone from someone who had swine flu, like a general flu.