First Swine Flu Death of U.S. Resident Confirmed

Texas state health officials have confirmed the first death of a U.S. resident with swine flu Tuesday, as the number of confirmed cases in the United States neared 500, with hundreds more probable cases.

 

The woman, a 33-year-old school teacher who had recently given birth to a healthy baby, died early Tuesday and had been hospitalized since April 19, said Leonel Lopez, Cameron County epidemiologist.

 

Health officials stopped short of saying that swine flu caused the woman's death. State health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said the woman had "chronic underlying health conditions" but wouldn't give any more details.

Lopez said the flu exacerbated the woman's condition. "The swine flu is very benign by itself," Lopez said. But "by the time she came to see us it was already too late."

Tuesday evening, cars filled the driveway and lined the quiet street in front of Judy Trunnell's home in a quiet, new Harlingen subdivision.

A woman who came to the door with tear-streaked eyes declined to give her name or to comment on the death, saying "we're grieving now."

The only other swine flu death in the U.S. was of a Mexico City boy who also had other health problems and had been visiting relatives in Brownsville, near Harlingen. He died last week at a Houston children's hospital.

The teacher was from Harlingen, a city of about 63,000 near the U.S.-Mexico border. The school district where she worked announced it would close its schools for the rest of the week, though officials said anyone who might have contracted the disease from her would have shown symptoms by now.

The teacher was first seen by a physician April 14 and was hospitalized on the 19th. The woman delivered a healthy baby while hospitalized and stayed in the hospital until her death, said Lopez, who declined to give further details about the baby.

Doctors knew she had a flu when she came in, but did not know what kind, Lopez said. The area is undergoing a Type A influenza epidemic right now, of which the swine flu is one variety, he said. She was confirmed to have swine flu shortly before she died, he said.

Dr. Joseph McCormick, regional dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health's Brownsville campus, said the woman was extremely ill when she was hospitalized.

Mercedes Independent School District, where the woman taught, announced it would close its schools starting Wednesday and reopen May 11.

Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. health officials said they are no longer recommending that schools close because of swine flu.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that the swine flu virus had turned out to be milder than initially feared. She says the government is changing its advice on closing schools.

The government last week advised schools to shut down for about two weeks if there were suspected cases of swine flu. Hundreds of schools around the country have followed that guidance and closed schools.

Sebelius says parents should still make sure to keep sick children at home.

Meanwhile, the swine flu epidemic continues to spread, a senior world health official said Tuesday, contradicting hopes voiced by some countries that the outbreak may have peaked.

Of the 405 additional laboratory confirmed cases reported to the World Health Organization since Monday, some were new infections, said WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda.

The global body says there are now 1,490 cases and 30 confirmed deaths. Of those, 822 cases and 29 deaths were in Mexico; the United States had 403 cases and 1 death; Canada had 140 cases, Spain 57, Britain 27, Germany nine, New Zealand six and Italy five. Israel and France had four cases each, Korea and El Salvador had two each, and Austria, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland had one case each.

"We are seeing testing of specimens that were collected from previous infections and then the laboratory work is catching up to it," Fukuda said. "But we're also seeing new infections occurring."

"So, there's both of these things going on simultaneously," he told reporters.

Fukuda said he was unable to give an exact breakdown of the figures, but spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said all but one death had occurred in Mexico. The United States has previously reported that one small child died from the disease.

Most of the people infected with the so-called A/H1N1 virus were young people in their mid-20s on average, Fukuda said.

Most of the people who came down with swine flu had been traveling to Mexico, which is the hardest-hit country.

Experts examining the disease say travel could also explain why mostly younger people appear to be affected, as they tend to be the ones traveling, Fukuda said.

"With influenza, oftentimes we see the infections go to younger people first and then go to older people later," Fukuda told reporters.

Another reason could be that older people already have some kind of protection against the virus from previous infections, he added.

Fukuda said patients who recover from the new swine flu virus would also likely gain some immunity to future outbreaks, if only for a few years.

"With influenza viruses, when you are infected it provides some protection against future influenza viruses similar to the one which infected you," he said.

The protection lasts "a couple of years and then the viruses themselves change enough so that it's kind of a new virus for your body so that you are susceptible again."

The disease is affecting females and males equally, Fukuda said, and the incubation period has ranged from around one day to a week, as seen with usual flu.

The World Health Organization said it was starting to ship 2.4 million treatments of antiflu drugs to the 72 countries "most in need" on Tuesday.

The countries included Mexico, Afghanistan, Angola, Bhutan, Bolivia, Eritrea, Haiti, Moldova, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Zimbabwe and others. The agency declined to say how much each country is getting.

"Part of the stock will be dispatched today, the 5th of May, from Geneva and Basel in Switzerland, Maryland in the U.S. and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates," said WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib.

The drugs are from a stock of 5 million treatments of Tamiflu that manufacturer Roche Holding AG donated to WHO in 2005 and 2006, she said.

Roche spokeswoman Martina Rupp in Basel said the company was starting work on the shipments at its Basel headquarters Tuesday.

On Tuesday evening, the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration is considering a multi-billion dollar campaign in the Fall to vaccinate Americans with a series of three shots. 

Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut

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