Utah child’s death tied to swine flu virus

By Heather May, The Salt Lake Tribune

A child is the second Utahn to die after testing positive for H1N1 swine flu.

The Salt Lake Valley Health Department reported the death Thursday. The child, between the ages of 5 and 18, died this week and had a “pretty severe underlying chronic condition” and respiratory problems, according to Dagmar Vitek, the department’s medical director.

Those illnesses would have put him or her at a higher risk of developing serious complications from the flu. The child was homeschooled, according to the health department. He or she was hospitalized at Primary Children’s Medical Center and died less than 24 hours later.

Most of the 489 cases in Utah continue to be mild, much like seasonal flu, according to the state Health Department. Still, Salt Lake County is warning that while the H1N1 flu seems to have plateaued in much of the rest of the country, it is still on the rise here.

“I don’t think we have peaked yet,” Vitek said. “The [influenza] type A tests that come back positive are going up, up, up. It’s out there in the community and people really have to be aware of that.”

Nationally, around 36,000 people die from seasonal flu-related causes. So far, there have been 17 U.S. deaths related to the H1N1 flu — not counting Utah’s latest death — with more than 11,000 confirmed cases, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 350 Utahns die of seasonal flu-related causes each year, with an average of two pediatric deaths. This year, one child has died of the seasonal flu, according to the state health department.

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