Most of the news stories about people who have died from H1N1 have noted that the deceased had some underlying condition which affected their immune system, lungs, etc.
Earlier this week in Toronto, a healthy hockey kid, aged 13, died suddenly of H1N1, after collapsing in his parents’ home.
Father Struggles with Son’s Death.
H1N1 vaccine clinics open here next week. PiperCub is going to be one of the first in line.
The asthma probably had something to do with it. Scary, though.
A frighteningly large number of deaths of healthy H1N1 victims here in Japan have been from brain swelling, and have been mostly within the first 36 hours since showing symptoms. We had one boy die in our little town. He was 11. It seems also to be affecting older elementary and JHS kids the most.
Right now we have one elementary closed with 109 kids sick with H1N1 and a JHS with 103 cases.
My English class kids are a representative sample of the town and over 30% of them have had it so far.
If you have the wrong immune system variant, H1N1 can cause acute respiratory distress, requiring immediate hospitalisation, and which may be fatal in up to 50% of cases.
However, the genetic markers for H1N1 sensitivity are not yet clear, so vaccination is the best option (even if it increases the likelyhood of normal seasonal flu infection, as some research seems to indicate).
Si
This has scared the crap out of us too here in the Durham region of the Greater Toronto Area to the extent that I attempted to take my 9-month and 3.5 year olds to TWO different H1N1 clinics here yesterday. Both locations had lineups that would have been easily 4 hours wait in line at the minimum.
Take some camp chairs, toys and snacks for the kids and good luck.
Uh… cite for that please? I have never heard that before. How could flu vaccination make flu more likely? That doesn’t make any sense.
From the article:
It had all happened so quickly. On Saturday, his 13-year-old son Evan was sick with the flu, but still playing hockey.
Sick with the flu…
**But still playing hockey.
But still playing hockey.
But still playing hockey.
But still playing hockey.
**
We had a 17-year-old kid die just a few blocks away over the weekend, apparently without any underlying conditions either. Unless you call being Hispanic an “underlying condition” (which, from what I’ve heard, may well be the case).
Wow. I remember flu. I didn’t feel like playing tick tack toe, no way would I even go out (even if my mum would have let me).
Yeah, what the hell? Even if he was feeling physically OK enough to play, he shouldn’t have been allowed to. Both to decrease exposure to his teammates and other kids, and to help him recover.
When I saw the father interviewed he said the only symptom the child had exhibited before the hockey games was a cough. He didn’t develop a fever or any other flu symptoms until afterward.
Exactly. Not to say that playing hockey killed him, but really, it didn’t help matters. Where did he find the strength? Those poor parents. I really, really hope neither of them said to him, “tough it out, son–your team needs you” or some such (which we’ve all said or something like it at various times to kids).
A Canadian hero.
In all seriousness, this flu sucks. Get a shot if you can. I’m still fighting to convince my hospital’s employee health department that I - and the other lab techs testing the specimens - should be on the short list to get the vaccine. We have dozens of patients hospitalized for influenza-like illness… why is it taking so long to get us the vaccine?
I work at a large university with an attached university hospital.
We got our vaccinations (H1N1 and regular flu) here at work today. All faculty, staff and students could get them free of charge. All hospital staff was required to get it, regardless of whether or not you have direct patient contact.
I normally get the seasonal flu vaccine every year. I was on the fence about the H1N1 vaccine, but since work was giving it away for free, I did it.
We took PiperCub to the seasonal flu vaccine clinic this afternoon, and we were in and out in 30 minutes. They start giving H1N1 next week, at the same clinic. I’m curious to see if there will be any difference.
There was a report that came out in the Canadian media in late September that suggested the H1N1 vaccine might decrease your body’s ability to fight off the seasonal flu: Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk. The health ministries in each province considered whether the report was strong enough evidence to recommend against the usual season flu vaccines and focus only on H1N1, but concluded that the evidence wasn’t there. Both vaccines are now available.
In the US it’s about twice as deadly as the regular flu which is to say people with pre-existing conditions should take heed. The current plan is to focus on those people. I don’t see a need for the entire planet to get vacinated at this point. Even the President’s children are not getting it during this round of vaccinations. If anyone was exposed to a world full of potentially sick people it would be them.
We waited 3.5 hours today. Me, the three year old and the two month old. Thank goodness for portable dvd players.
We’ll have to go back in three weeks for the second half for the kiddo - but I’m sure things will have calmed down by then.
I’m not sure if I’m correctly reading what you wrote. Both of Obama’s girls have gotten the swine flu shot a few days ago.
And they got it through the same channels that other children their age would. I know the President and First Lady are waiting until all high-risk population in their district have been vaccinated.
On a side note, one of the teenagers in my World of Warcraft guild has been home sick and absolutely miserable with what is presumed to be H1N1. We just found out today that he’s been sent to the hospital, so I hope he’ll be all right. 