Health officials act on H1N1 flu

Wahkiakum County commissioners declared a countywide emergency October 8, to deal with the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus they were told had surfaced in the county a few months ago. The Commissioners written Declaration of Emergency states that, “The Director of health and human services reported that a life-threatening infectious … pandemic is imminent and … there is a substantial likelihood of risk to citizens … of Wahkiakum County … under the emergency powers granted to them by RCW 36.40.180. it is therefore declared an emergency.”Wahkiakum received its first shipment of H1N1 vaccine October 7. The vaccine is first being made available to the county’s healthcare workers, emergency responders and children in childcare.

Judy Bright, Director of Wahkiakum County Health & Human Services, issued a statement saying her department had received 200 doses of the intranasal H1N1 vaccine on Friday, and would vaccinate emergency, and healthcare workers immediately.

Bright’s letter to the Commissioners went on to say that on Monday (October 12) Wahkiakum DHS would begin vaccinating children 2-5 years old. ‘As you can see we are moving fast to vaccinate Wahkiakum residents, Bright wrote.”

Health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday that 76 children have died in the U.S. of swine flu, including 19 new reports in the past week — more evidence the virus is dangerous to the young.

The CDC said regular flu kills between 46 and 88 children a year. Recent deaths from the new H1N1 virus suggest the virus could dramatically outpace children’s deaths from seasonal flu, if swine flu continues to spread as it has.

The CDC first categorized the H1N1 virus as a global epidemic in April of this year after it surfaced in Mexico and moved into the U.S. The CDC said it doesn’t have an exact count of all swine flu deaths and hospitalizations, but several reports suggest more than 600 have died, and more than 9,000 people have been hospitalized.

Health officials believe millions of Americans have caught the virus but it's hitting young people hardest. Experts believe older people suffer less because over the years they’ve developed immunity from exposure to similar viruses.

Some deaths have occurred due to H1N1. More often however, they occur from secondary infections that move in while the body is weakened from the flu. The CDC says kids with asthma or chronic heart or respiratory conditions also risk complications.

Experts say that it’s important for a parent to watch their child’s flu symptoms carefully. If a child appears better, but the fever and cough return, there may be a secondary infection. Other trouble signs include rapid, difficult breathing or bluish skin color.

PANDEMIC MEANS WORLDWIDE

Also on Friday the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement saying they expect it will take several years before the organization downgrades the H1N1 flu from a pandemic to seasonal flu-like virus.

The WHO moved its six-point pandemic alert to its top rung in June in response to the spread of the new virus, which the WHO says has killed at least 4,500 people worldwide.

In previous pandemics, it has taken time for flu strains to become less contagious. Eventually a pandemic virus becomes more flu-like. That process normally will take two to three years.

WHO doctors say influenza viruses thrive in colder climates and normally pack the biggest punch in winter. In its latest snapshot of the spread of H1N1, also released Friday, the WHO said there has been an unusually early start of flu-like illness in the Northern Hemisphere this autumn.

The WHO report also said that so far there is no sign of the pandemic strain of flu that mutated into the more serious form that was first identified in Mexico and the United States early this year.