New York woman dies of swine flu in Las Vegas
A 70-year-old woman visiting from New York is the first swine flu-related death in Clark County, the Southern Nevada Health District confirmed Friday.
Her illness was diagnosed shortly after she arrived in Las Vegas and she was soon hospitalized. The woman had underlying medical conditions that could have contributed to her death, the health district said.
Stephanie Bethel, a spokeswoman for the health district, said officials did not know if the woman had contracted the H1N1 virus in Nevada, New York or somewhere else. They also did not know how long she had been in Las Vegas or where she was staying.
“It is sobering that a patient has died from this influenza strain and it serves as a reminder that we anticipate cases with severe illness and hospitalization in our community as with other strains of flu,” Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer for the health district, said in a news release. “Unfortunately there is a possibility we may see more deaths as we do each flu season.”
Dr. Dale Carrison, UMC’s chairman of emergency medicine, said “generally when we talk about underlying conditions, we are talking about people who have conditions such as diabetes, lung disease or heart disease.”
The difficulty is some people don’t have the same reserves to fight off the flu that so many others have, he said.
Carrison, who does not have any specific knowledge about this case, said “this is not a time for people to panic.”
Sands said Las Vegas has been fortunate that most patients locally "have had mild illnesses, although there have been hospitalizations.”
“We also want to remind everyone that most people who are infected with this strain or any other influenza strain do not seek medical attention and recover on their own.”
The World Health Organization declared a pandemic this week, as its count of confirmed cases reached nearly 30,000. The organization reported at least 145 deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 17,000 confirmed and probable cases nationwide. Prior to the death in Nevada, the CDC reported 45 deaths in the U.S. Thirteen of those have occurred in New York.
A normal seasonal flu outbreak kills 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide.
In Southern Nevada, officials say the vast majority of swine flu cases they’ve seen are mild.
Four of those cases were reported from an elementary school in Las Vegas this week.
The Clark County School District said the students from Marion Earl Elementary School, 6650 W. Reno Ave., near the intersection of Torrey Pines Drive and Tropicana Avenue, had a mild form of the illness.
Health officials did not recommend that the school be closed, but have urged parents to keep sick children at home.
The school had an absentee rate of nearly 60 percent Friday as 365 students decided to stay home. The school has an enrollment of 614.
Officials are uncertain how many students are actually sick because many children are being kept home as a health precaution. The school is expected to be open again Monday.
Though the WHO now calls the H1N1 virus a pandemic, Carrison said that doesn’t speak to the virulence of the strain but the geographic spread.
“Too often people misinterpret the word ‘pandemic’ for severity,” he said.
Still, Carrison said he sees concern in Las Vegas because people continue to come into UMC’s emergency room thinking they have swine flu.
Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917. Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.
