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Officials: Maryland family's flu tragedy was unusual
http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... 1lI5TEgfZA

Mar 08, 2012
Officials: Maryland family's flu tragedy was unusual
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

...While it's in the nature of influenza to infect people who are in close contact, three fatalities among one family is rare.

The family is believed to have had the H3N2 strain of flu, which has been circulating in the U.S. for more than two years and has been in the flu vaccine for the past two years. H3N2 can be particularly dangerous for the elderly.

However it wasn't the strain of the flu they had that killed them. What was deadly in this case, and what health officials always worry about, are co-infections. CDC officials believe that all three had Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). It's the type of staph bacteria that causes boils. But it can also get in the lungs or the blood stream and cause dangerous infections. People who have the flu can be more susceptible to these infections. "You're sick with the flu virus and that can make you more susceptible to an infection from this really nasty bacteria that can make you really sick pretty quickly," says Skinner.
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Be Careful what you read into things. There's NO confirmation in this USA TODAY article by Elizabeth Weise. There is, however, a lot of suggestion. If USA TODAY has confirmation, they need to report it as confirmation. That's what the Lab does in a hospital. They don't send up a report that says "We BELIEVE this patient has MRSA" They send up a report Confirming MRSA.

Usually the CDC doesn't have "Officials" they have a spokes person responsible for delivering this information. "Officials" is akin to (inside sources). It sounds too tabloid for my taste. So who said it? And is it confirmed or not? I believe a lot of things, but it doesn't make them so.

Does somebody have official confirmation?

_________________
"Old Mother Goose, when she wanted to wander, would ride through the air on a very fine gander."
1916
"Mother Goose had a house,
'Twas built in a wood,
Where an owl at the door
For sentinel stood."

Not many posts this afternoon. I went down to the Peterson Event Center to watch one of my daughter's robotics team (Girls of Steel)
http://www.girlsofsteelrobotics.com/
practice for tomorrow's Regional competition
http://www.pittsburghfirst.org/events/frc-competition
I arrived at noon and was planning on spending an hour, but everyone was on a lunch break, so I decided to stay for the early afternoon practices, when the shooting started.

The Peterson Event Center is literally next door to UPMC's Western Psych, so we were on lockdown all afternoon (and the battery in my cell phone was dying).

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www.twitter.com/hniman

I suspect MRSA is determined at the state level and initial results are relatively quick, so I think preliminary data is probably available. However, the conclusive testing for the virus is sequencing, because the PCR test can easily confuse seasonal H3N2 and H3N2v. I don't think that data has been released to any media (and Tom Skinner is a MEDIA contact who just passes along CLEARED CDC udated info).

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www.twitter.com/hniman

small world. We spent some hours last Saturday at the San Antonio regional. My son is on the mentor end of it, but their Robonaut team placed in the third place alliance (63 teams).

Best of luck to the Girls of Steel!
Let all the shooting be shooting baskets!

So is he heading for St Louis?
GoS is just in its second year, but won Rookie of the Year last year, so they went to Nationals. If they don't qualify for St Louis this weekend they have another shot in Cincinatti. It's my daughter's first year, but Remy
http://www.aspinwallpa.com/march2012-meeting.pdf
heads the chasis team and is also one of the two pit leaders, so it will be a busy weekend.

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www.twitter.com/hniman

The spike in low reactors in week 8 FluView is reported to be drift variant. Antigen characterization tests are a lagging indicator, so it is likely that the drift variant has now become dominant for seasonal H3N2 in the US and current vaccine will have little utility (new target has been selected for 2012/2013 season).
However, the likelihood that the Maryland cluster is due to H3N2v remains high (and the current or future seasonal H3N2 vaccine will have limited utility).

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www.twitter.com/hniman

That would be exciting!

They have another chance at qualifying at another regional, but otherwise, only one alliance advances to nationals.
Robonaut was the highest scoring robot last Saturday on points from baskets, but another team pulled off the 3 robots on the bridge stunt in two rounds of competition.

Yes, I think the bridge is key. The GoS robot is small enough to get multiple robots on the bridge and they have a sophisticated program for sensing signals on backboard, but their on board computer was hit in yesterday's practice, so they are making adjustments. GoS is VERY large with major inputs from CMU.

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www.twitter.com/hniman

Sounds like they will have good odds of success. GoS can also advance if they win the Engineering Inspiration award.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/ ... pneumonia/

Flu Infections And MRSA Deaths In Maryland




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Points out that even if Ruth Blake had had a vaccine with a good match, because of her age she may not have had a robust immune response.