Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 4, 2003 12:00 AM
Health officials are investigating the influenza virus death of a 5-year-old Maricopa County child who was on vacation in California.
Details were sketchy late Wednesday but came on the same day Colorado announced that two more children had died of the flu, bringing to six the number of children who have died in that state.
"There's good evidence that this is a tough flu this year," said Dr. Bob England, epidemiologist for the Arizona Department of Health Services. "It's making people sicker than they normally would be."
Although 20,000 to 40,000 Americans die of the flu each year, children usually emerge relatively unscathed from the viruses.
"It's not unprecedented," England said, "but it's not common for healthy young children to die, either."
Doug Hauth, spokesman for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, would not release any details about the case until this morning.
But other health sources said the case involves a 5-year-old child who contracted the virus in the Valley but died out of state.
Three of the child's family members also became ill with the flu and remained hospitalized, sources said, and virologists isolated an influenza A strain.
Dehydration is one of the key problems for children who contract the flu.
Although influenza has been reported in at least six Arizona counties to date, it has spiked first and most severely in Pima County, England said.
"That won't last long. We expect to see it (in Phoenix) at that level in about a week," he said.
As of Wednesday, Maricopa County had confirmed 137 cases of flu. That is likely an underestimate, however, because most doctors don't test for flu, and many patients don't seek medical help when they come down with the virus.
Arizona's outbreak ranks as "regional," the second-worst category established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The state is surrounded by regions with "widespread" flu activity, however, which is the worst category.
Despite its prevalence, doctors say they are seeing "typical flu" among Arizona patients.
"It's hitting hard. It looks big right now in Tucson, but we have not seen some of the primary complications of influenza that can be life-threatening," said Dr. Eskild Petersen, adult infectious-disease specialist at University Medical Center.
The emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tucson has seen a 25 percent increase over last year, to 5,579 from 4,445 patients, blamed on flu.
Six to eight elderly patients daily have been hospitalized and put on ventilators to help them breathe, an official said.
At Tucson Medical Center, the majority of youngsters who arrive daily in the pediatric emergency department are suffering from flu, said Dr. Ronald Salik, medical director.
Meanwhile, one of the largest operators of flu clinics is reopening grocery-store clinics that closed Tuesday.
Dr. Art Mollen said he decided to reopen the clinics because of growing demand. The Mollen clinics are expected to receive a thousand doses of flu vaccine today.
Dennis
