First Swine Flu Death Of US Resident Confirmed By Texas

McALLEN, Texas — Texas health officials on Tuesday announced the first death of a U.S. resident with swine flu, and said she was a 33-year-old school teacher who had recently given birth to a healthy baby.

The woman died early Tuesday and had been hospitalized since April 19, said Leonel Lopez, Cameron County epidemiologist.

Health officials stopped short of saying that swine flu caused the woman's death. State health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said the woman had "chronic underlying health conditions" but wouldn't give any more details.

Lopez said the flu exacerbated the woman's condition. "The swine flu is very benign by itself," Lopez said. But "by the time she came to see us it was already too late."

Tuesday evening, cars filled the driveway and lined the quiet street in front of Judy Trunnell's home in a quiet, new Harlingen subdivision.

A woman who came to the door with tear-streaked eyes declined to give her name or to comment on the death, saying "we're grieving now."

The only other swine flu death in the U.S. was of a Mexico City boy who also had other health problems and had been visiting relatives in Brownsville, near Harlingen. He died last week at a Houston children's hospital.

There have been 29 other confirmed swine flu deaths, all in Mexico. Hundreds of cases of the disease have been confirmed in several countries, but mostly in Mexico and the U.S.

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The teacher was from Harlingen, a city of about 63,000 near the U.S.-Mexico border. The school district where she worked announced it would close its schools for the rest of the week, though officials said anyone who might have contracted the disease from her would have shown symptoms by now.

She was first seen by a physician April 14 and was hospitalized five days later. The woman delivered a healthy baby while hospitalized and stayed in the hospital until her death, said Lopez, who declined to give further details about the baby.

Doctors knew she had a flu when she came in, but did not know what kind, Lopez said. The area is undergoing a Type A influenza epidemic right now, of which the swine flu is one variety, he said. She was confirmed to have swine flu shortly before she died, he said.

Dr. Joseph McCormick, regional dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health's Brownsville campus, said the woman was extremely ill when she was hospitalized.

Mercedes Independent School District, where the woman taught, announced it would close its schools starting Wednesday and reopen May 11.

U.S. health officials changed course on their advice to schools Tuesday, saying they are no longer recommending that schools close for the swine flu. Last week, the government had advised schools to shut down for about two weeks if there were suspected cases of swine flu.

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Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell in El Paso and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.

Comments

[RightsGuy]

IF you have health insurance, DOES IT COVER oseltamvir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza), THE TREATMENTS FOR H1N1 FLU (SWINE FLU?

A number of health insurance companies don’t cover the only known treatments for H1N1 (swine) flu, and these treatments may be denied outright by your insurance carrier---yet another example of health insurance companies placing profits before patients’ health and lives.

Some companies force physicians and patients to go through a lengthy and expensive pre-authorization process to approve the treatments. But swine flu treatments must be started within 48 hours to be effective; you likely won’t hear back from your insurance company for days, and they may still say no. Denial of care saves them money.

In addition, the disconnected medical records systems of the 1500 separate American private health insurance companies prevents timely epidemiological diagnosis and targeting of pandemics, thereby delaying the response of doctors and public health officials.

WITH SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE FOR ALL, integrated with a single electronic medical records system, diseases or bio-terrorism could be instantly identified, isolated, and treated with effective drugs available to all to need them.

This possible H1N1 flu (swine flu) pandemic demonstrates yet another dangerous deficiency of private insurance companies which serve no real purpose in the health and well being of Americans.

Only a single-payer approach to healthcare reform will END THE INHUMANITY OF OUR FAILED HEALTHCARE INSURANCE SYSTEM, WHERE PROFITS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PATIENTS’ HEALTH, and where people die because of it.

[Bashley]

My heart goes out to the Trunnell family and to their beautiful baby girl. I pray the baby is healthy and that the family will be allowed to grieve in peace.

[ResistanceisFutile]

x

[SwingingFromCenter]

Oh no! 1 person has gone down! Close the borders!

I fear for my children. Not because of this whole flu thing, but because the shee.ple of America are going to be 10 times worse when the kid becomes an adult.

[TazoWolf]

Decent Q&A about Swine flu here, backing up words with scientific explanations people can understand to dispel some fears and explain where the real concerns lie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma7IeWRH7y0

[DMW1]

According to this article, the CDC only counts swine flu cases and deaths if their own lab confirms it. Unfortunately, they're only able to text appx. 100 samples per day. That would mean the number of cases is being grossly unreported:

http://www.naturalnews.com/026179.html

I haven't had time to verify this through other sources, but considering that most diseases like this are more deadly in their second wave, after they mutate, it makes sense to stay as informed as possible and take common sense precautions.

[Marcus01]

I see everyone is sufficiently distracted from paying attention to the real issues that actually effect their lives. Another victory for the MSM and The Powers That Be.

[RightsGuy]

If you have health insurance, DOES YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE COVER OSELTAMVIR (TAMIFLU) OR ZANAMIVIR (RELENZA), THE TREATMENTS FOR H1N1 FLU (SWINE FLU)? These treatments should be started within 48 hours of illness.

The potential H1N1 flu (swine flu) pandemic in America offers yet another example of the health risk that 1500 fragmented private health insurance corporations place on Amercians. Not all private insurance corporation formularies offer Tamiflu (oseltamivir) or zanamivir (Relenza), to patients. These treatments, the only treatments that have been shown to have any effect on H1N1 flu, may be denied outright by your insurance carrier.

Or, physicians and patients may be required to go through the standard lengthy and expensive pre-authorization process in order to beg the bureaucrats who control the insurance company pharmacies for the most appropriate antiviral treatment for H1N1 flu.

In addition, the disconnected electronic medical records and disease monitoring and billing systems of the 1500 separate American private health insurance companies prevents timely epidemiological diagnosis and targeting of pandemics, thereby delaying the response of doctors and public health officials.

WITH SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE FOR ALL, integrated with a single EMR and billing system, foci of diseases or bio-nuclear terrorism could be instantly identified, isolated and treated with an affordable comprehensive drug and therapeutic formulary.

This possible H1N1 flu (swine flu) pandemic demonstrates yet another dangerous deficiency of private insurance companies which serve no real purpose in the health and well being of Americans.

[Jtt]

"Bob lost his family health insurance some time ago as his company struggled to stay open in the bad economy. The emergency room visit required a $450 deposit. The Tamiflu and a second drug prescribed for the boys cost more than $100 each."

From that story I posted. I cant believe a hospital, probably one taking advantage of every tax break and government program it can, would do that. A deposit or suffer. Priceless.

[pokemon]

Be worried but not freaked out. I would just stock up on enough food and water to last 6 weeks, giving you PLENTY of time away from the flu.. of course you may want to kill your family after a few weeks, but at least everyone will be healthy.

[Jtt]

"pandemic" actually has to do with the way it spreads not the number of deaths. This is probably a pandemic.

All major pandemics killed more in their second wave it seems. No one knows what this will do or what immunity to the new protein on this virus will mean once you are over it.

Its actually a rather grave situation. Its spreading an incredible rate. It is a new virus in a new environment.

They don't know what it will do and they have been less than truthful with the numbers. If this had been a real emergency we would all be dead. So its probably good it isn't all that bad.

[Jtt]

Read this, its not a joke -

Flu proves an agonizing ordeal for Edgewood family

Three members of the Edgewood family have been sicker than they’ve ever been with the routine influenza.

Health officials said Saturday that the Lehdes’ 14-year-old son, Gabriel Davis, was the first probable case of swine flu in Pierce County. The officials said the boy was fully recovered after taking the flu drug Tamiflu.

“He wasn’t recovered,” she said. He still was wracked with high fever, headaches, coughing, body aches and vomiting, she said.

The swine flu outbreak “should open people’s eyes,” Kym said.

“Yes, it’s 2009,” she said. “There is new technology. But people are living a false sense of security.
( http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/731992.html )

[donnajr]

do not eat tomatoes .7-7-2008

[twohearts]

I know it's not fair to the woman who died, but I'd like to know a little bit more about her chronic conditions - I hope ALL of us who do have "chronic conditions" take extra care anyway.

Mine is a very suppressed immune system & a lung transplant. I'm not too worried about this, but I'm able to stay away from public spaces & so on.

[Jtt]

The 33-year-old school teacher from the area of Harlingen, Texas, died yesterday after first seeking treatment for a chronic respiratory condition on April 14, said Leo Lopez, an epidemiologist at the Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services in Texas. The teacher returned to the hospital on April 19 with more severe symptoms, he said.

Exacerbated by Flu

“She already had a respiratory condition -- it was exacerbated by the flu,” Lopez said in a telephone interview yesterday. He said the woman hadn’t traveled recently and the flu was probably “home-grown,” contracted in the U.S. Cameron County is located in south Texas along the U.S. border with Mexico. ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAx7pxo9nykY&refer=home )

I have asthma and I think we were all thrown under the bus for the recovery. They had no idea what this would do and Mexico was being less than honest with the numbers. They should have shut the border. Im sick of the "regular flu..." ministry of information paroters spreading the lines.

Why not tell us the truth then deal with the panic instead of dealing with the panic before telling the truth?

[dimplesmile7]

It is way too early to determine this is not a pandemic. It's only been two weeks. The CDC said this can still mutate and come back again a lot stronger.

[drricklippin]

While I mourn any death this case illustrates a fundamental point about flu.

GENERALLY FLU DOES NOT CAUSE DEATH.

The constant reporting on 35,000 annual regular US flu deaths is bad science. Most of these 35,000 deaths are in the frail and the elderly or in otherwise sick people

So they are not really "flu deaths".

Sorry folks- hysteria helps no one.

Dr. Rick Lippin
Slouthampton,Pa

[fairywhatnot]

Still, one death is not a pandemic! The 'regular' flu claims something like 36THOUSAND lives EACH YEAR!

[CJWebber]

Shame on you for being rational.

[kreoth]

I heard a Mexican woman (interviewed on NPR) talk about how not so long ago the President of Mexico was caught in some major corruption scandal that seriously threatened his presidency, and how at about the same time the silly story of the "chupacabra" exploded, to a certain extent redirecting media attention away from the scandal.

These days Mexico is (from what I hear) the LatAm country worst-hit by the economic crisis (due to its affairs being so closely entangled with the United States') and, poof! you get a "pandemic" that is turning out to be mostly a bust and little more than a distraction (plus a bit of a cash cow for Donald Rumsfeld, just google him and tamiflu). Calderon has remained in fact quite mum about the whole deal, though his government issued statements regarding his willingness to curtail civil liberties as needed (Dubya-style).

Very scary (and I cannot help but think about Naomi Klein's theory of "disaster capitalism", definitely worth reading about).

[slaxx]

i think pandemic refers to the amount of people it effects, not k i l l s.

[CaveatLector]

And also how quickly and/or easily it is transmitted...

[Jtt]

that has nothing to do with this.

[pokemon]

You really need to read the definition of pandemic as the government sees it, not how you perceive it should be.

From a government stand point having a highly infectious flu floating around is cause for extreme alarm, because it may only take one mutation to turn it into a killer.