First U.S. fatality reported from swine flu, WHO raises pandemic alert level

A 23-month-old baby boy from Mexico died in Texas, making him the first reported fatality related to the 2009 H1N1 swine influenza outbreak outside of Mexico, as confirmed cases continued to climb in the U.S. and abroad.

The boy traveled with his family from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas, where he became ill and was taken to a Houston hospital. He died at the facility on Monday, officials with the CDC said. However, they directed reporter inquiries about what medications the boy had been treated with to local health officials there and calls for comment were not immediately returned.

Richard Besser, MD, acting chief of the CDC told reporters in a press conference that additional deaths related to this flu were “expected.”

Anthony Fauci, MD, of the NIAID noted in the press conference that this swine flu is an “unpredictable virus and its unpredictability underscores the kinds of caution we’re dealing with.”

The number of confirmed cases in the United States climbed to 91 cases in 10 states, including 51 in New York, 16 in Texas, 14 in California, two each in Massachusetts, Michigan and Kansas, and on each in Arizona, Nevada, Indiana and Ohio. Another country, Germany was added to the list of afflicted nations with three confirmed cases of swine flu.

“Many hundreds” of children in New York City schools became ill; several schools are shutting down as reports of swine flu trickle in. The CDC has advised schools considering closing in cases where there is a student with a confirmed case of this strain of influenza.

Health officials said their focus on preventing spread of this illness remains the same: to look at methods to prevent spread, including emphasizing contact precautions, distributing treatment information as quickly as possible and revving up vaccine production.

Besser called on everyone to take contact precautions like handwashing, use of alcohol based sanitizer gels, covering coughs with arms or shoulders and encouraging “home isolation practices,” which, simply put, means staying home from school or work when a person feels sick. Responding to a question from reporters about closing the border with Mexico, Besser said the CDC is “looking at things that will have the greatest impact on decreasing spread,” and he said that experience with other respiratory illnesses like SARS has shown that closing borders is not traditionally an effective means to decrease spread of these types of illnesses.

The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough antiflu medication for 11 million people, but also hospital supplies, masks and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases.

Newly sworn-in HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters at the conference that she plans to work closely with President Obama and officials from across the government to “address this threat.”

Fauci said officials with NIH are hopeful they will have pilot lots of vaccines to conduct clinical trials within a few months. He said several steps would be required before a vaccine would be available for the public, including determining safety, immunogenicity and the proper dosages. – Colleen Zacharyczuk