Health officials have confirmed that a toddler visiting from Mexico died in a Houston, Texas hospital this past Monday. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the young boy had traveled with his family from Mexico City in early April to Matamoros, Mexico, then crossed the border to Brownsville in south Texas. He developed a fever on April 8, and five days later, he was admitted to a hospital in Brownville, then transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where he died on April 27. Dr. David E. Persse, director of emergency medical services in Houston, and other city health officials tried to calm fears of an outbreak, reporting that no other members of the boy’s family had shown symptoms of the virus.
The young boy is among a growing number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, a “hybrid” flu that comprises a previously unknown combination of genetic material from swine (pig), bird and human viruses – a number of cases that climbs by the day. As of Wednesday, there are 91 confirmed cases in 10 states, up from 66 confirmed cases in 5 states Tuesday. The majority – 51 – were students from a private school in New York, who had traveled to Mexico over spring break. In addition, there are currently 16 confirmed cases in Texas and 14 in California. Other states reporting cases include Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Indiana, Kansas and Ohio.
With the “hybrid” flu infecting people who have not been to Mexico and showing no signs of slowing down, Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda of the World Health Organization said that its emergency committee had not scheduled a meeting to increase its pandemic alert level, but was likely to do so soon. “It appears we are moving closer to that, but we are not there yet,” he said in a news conference. “At this point there is very intense analysis of all available information going on.” In fact, WHO experts are scrutinizing the transmission patterns of the H1N1 virus to see if it is spreading among people who have never been to Mexico — the epicenter of the outbreak — or who have had close contact with those who had. Fukuda says that “once the disease shows signs of spreading in a sustained way within communities in the United States, Europe or elsewhere, the WHO would look to again raise the alert level, as it did on Monday from 3 to 4.” Its official guidance indicates that “the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent.”
News Release: Mexican Toddler in U.S. Dies From Swine Flu www.nytimes.com April 29, 2009
News Release: WHO moves closer to raising flu pandemic alert www.reuters.com April 29, 2009
News Release: U.S. confirmed swine flu total rises to 91: CDC www.reuters.com April 29, 2009
