Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

ALLIANCE — Memorial services will be Sunday afternoon for a 23-year-old woman who died Tuesday after more than four months of battling a string of illnesses.

In late September, she was diagnosed with H1N1 and soon found herself fighting a string of complications from the illness.

Although Haidet was diagnosed with H1N1, the illness is not listed as causing her death, according to Canton City Health Department records. The actual cause of death was heart failure — listed as ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation — with respiratory failure and infectious mononucleosis as contributing factors.

As of Thursday, there had been 51 H1N1 deaths reported to the Ohio Department of Health, spokeswoman Jen House said.

the state has confirmed 51 deaths from H1N1. However, most of those represent deaths of children because health officials are not required to report adult deaths from H1N1, she said. The Wapakoneta woman's death [of 1/29/10] was not included in that statewide count, she added.

H1N1 vaccination rates don't show full picture
[...]
Despite a requirement that vaccine providers report data within 24 hours, many are lagging significantly behind, meaning the state has an inaccurate, low count of who has been vaccinated for H1N1.

No penalty is spelled out for delayed reporting, but the Ohio Department of Health has encouraged providers -- including doctors, local health departments and retailers -- to provide more-current numbers, said Amy Bashforth, the state's immunization program chief.
[...]

Family of pregnant Ohio woman who died of swine flu sues hospital
By Associated Press
February 13, 2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The family of a pregnant Ohio woman who died of complications from swine flu is suing a hospital, saying doctors failed to provide proper medical care.

Kelsey Young died Sept. 3.

The family's attorney, Jeffrey Beausay, says the 20-year-old Young died because doctors at Dublin Methodist Hospital near Columbus failed to give her the medication Tamiflu and sent her home. Her symptoms got worse, and Young went to a different hospital where she died.

Her baby daughter was delivered prematurely before her death and is being cared for by relatives.

Mark Hopkins, a spokesman for OhioHealth, which operates the Dublin hospital, said the corporation would not comment on the lawsuit but that it wishes the best for Young's baby and her family.

However you will need to get re-vaccinated next year because the vaccine will wane and there could be a new strain

Published: Tue, March 9, 2010 @ 12:01 a.m.By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

INFLUENZA
Ohio typically records about 3,000 deaths from influenza and its most serious complication pneumonia. So far this flu season, Sept. 1, 2009-March 5, 2010, with three to four weeks left in the traditional flu season, there have been 2,600 flu-related deaths. Here are H1N1-related deaths (only pediatric deaths are required to be reported, although some public health departments choose to report adult deaths).
Mahoning: 3
Columbiana: 1
Trumbull: 0
Ohio total: 51
Here are the pneumonia/influenza deaths for this flu season compiled from death certificates:
Mahoning: 64
Columbiana: 45
Trumbull: 70
Ohio total: 2,600
Source: Ohio Department of Health
The 2009-10 flu season has so far been milder than usual, even with the H1N1 (swine) flu in the mix, public health officials say.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, there were 2,600 deaths from the flu and its most serious complication, pneumonia, between Sept. 1, 2009, and March 5, which is considered the bulk of the flu season. Typically, Ohio has about 3,000 deaths during the flu season.

These statistics, however, do not reflect the H1N1 deaths that occurred between last spring, when the H1N1 flu appeared, and Sept. 1. Also, the numbers are the product of a new system of computing flu deaths requested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes pneumonia, said Jennifer House, ODH spokeswoman.

In the tri-county area during the 2009-10 flu season so far, there were 179 pneumonia/flu deaths: Sixty-four in Mahoning, 45 in Columbiana, and 70 in Trumbull.

The deaths specifically attributed to H1N1 flu during the 2009-10 flu season are Mahoning, 3; Columbiana, 1; and Trumbull, 0. There were 51 H1N1 deaths reported in the state in that period, House said.

Not all H1N1 deaths are reported, however. Only pediatric-flu deaths are required to be reported, although some public health departments choose to report adult H1N1 deaths, House said.

Statewide, the incidence of flu is winding down, and there have been no reports of flu-related admissions to local hospitals in recent weeks, said Neil Altman, health commissioner of the Youngstown District Board of Health.

“March is typically the height of the flu season and when we expected the third wave of the H1N1 pandemic. We haven’t seen it,” said Matthew Stefanak, commissioner of the Mahoning County District Board of Health.

“But,” Stefanak added, “you never know. You don’t expect to see flu in April and May, but we did in 2009.”

The county health district will continue active surveillance. If there is a surge in flu activity, Stefanak urged people to get the vaccine, which he said is in plentiful supply.

Altman partially attributes the so-far mild H1N1 flu season to a plentiful supply of vaccine and people coming out in good numbers to get it.

At the start of the H1N1 scare, he issued a press release asking people to call him if they had been in Mexico before, during and after the H1N1 outbreak there. Mexico is where H1N1 flu in humans started, he said.

“Four hundred people called me, and while none had flu symptoms, it was a great educational tool. I was able to tell people symptoms to look for, which helped prevent hysteria from building up,” Altman said.

“We were lucky that the seasonal flu was milder than usual, because manufacturers quit making the seasonal flu vaccine to concentrate on making H1N1 vaccine,” he said.