Third New Jersey resident dies with swine flu

By Carly Rothman, The Star-Ledger

SUSSEX — A 10-year-old boy from the county is the third New Jersey resident with H1N1 influenza to die, the state health agency reported today.

The child, who had underlying medical conditions, was hospitalized June 14 after developing a cough and fever, according to a statement from the state Department of Health and Senior Services. He died Wednesday at Morristown Memorial Hospital, the agency said.

The boy had no symptoms on June 11, when he was last in school, the statement noted. The agency did not identify the child’s school or hometown.

Joseph A. Trunfio, acting president of Morristown Memorial Hospital president and CEO of its parent organization, Atlantic Health, issued a statement last night noting the child’s unspecified conditions existed before he was admitted to the hospital.

Trunfio added patients with flu-like symptoms that require hospitalization are routinely isolated, in keeping with the hospital’s pandemic flu plan.

“The Morristown Memorial Hospital community expresses deepest condolences to the family of a child who passed away at our hospital today,” he wrote in the statement.

New Jersey currently has 415 confirmed cases of the novel flu virus in 19 counties, with 252 probable cases awaiting confirmatory testing by the state laboratory, according to the state health agency’s statement.

Two other two New Jersey residents to die with H1N1 influenza were a 49-year-old West Orange man, Michael Reiser, who died June 13 at Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, and a 15-year-old boy who died June 8 at home in Somerset County.

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