A Lyon County man has died from H1N1, health officials announced Friday in a news conference. Officials did not know where the death occurred.
This is the the ninth death in Kansas from H1N1 influenza virus.
The H1N1 virus was confirmed late Thursday afternoon by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment as a contributing factor in the man’s death. The presence of the H1N1 virus in the victim was confirmed on Wednesday.
“The death occurred in a 62-year-old man from northeast Kansas who had underlying health conditions that put him at greater risk for serious complications from the virus,” local health officer Ann Mayo said, reading an excerpt from the KDHE announcement on Friday.
Mayo emphasized that the local man’s death was not cause for panic. Most cases of seasonal flu and H1N1 flu are relatively mild, with the most serious cases generally confined to people with underlying health problems.
“We’re still under the actual number of deaths we would expect from seasonal flu,” Mayo said.
Broad-based testing for flu type on individual patients ended about a month ago, but some tests continue to be taken for the state agency. The local health department is a “sentinel site” for KDHE, which means that samples taken from flu patients are submitted weekly.
“They are testing two random samples a week,” said Renee Hively, director of public health nursing.
The clinic at Emporia State University and Newman Regional Health also are sentinel sites for the state testing, she said.
Mayo said that tests also are made on anyone who dies after exhibiting flu symptoms. Flu vaccines continue to be in short supply and what is available already is committed to health workers and pregnant women.
Hively said that supplies for those limited groups ran short during a vaccination clinic Thursday evening.
“We did have to turn a handful of people away,” Hively said. “... Our vaccine is coming in in a very low trickle.”
Hively ordered the local supplies of Influenza A vaccine in January. Half was to have been to Emporia by the end of August, and the other half was scheduled to arrive before the end of September. The time frame has been extended and the supply reduced.
More vaccine could become available next week, and as supplies become available the innoculation categories will be expanded to include other priority groups — caregivers for infants younger than 6 months, children ages 6 months through 24 years, and people aged 25 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions.
“Once the priority groups have been vaccinated, the general public will be provided with the opportunity for vaccination,” Mayo said.
In the interim, KDHE makes allotments every Wednesday, to let counties know how much vaccine will be given to each county.
The reality of the shortage contrasts with the early predictions of an adequate supply of seasonal flu doses. The pressure of producing that vaccine, as well as H1N1, however, apparently is the primary cause of the current shortage.
“They didn’t start production ’til this year, and it takes about a year to get up to full production,” Mayo said.
Health officials hope that they will be able to influence the typical bell curve structure of the flu epidemic to a flatter, if longer and more time-consuming, curve. Absences of workers because of flu can provoke economic difficulties nationwide, Mayo said as she drew a bell curve on a white board to illustrate people staying home to take care of their sick children and, perhaps, themselves soon after.
“You start out with a few, and then you get an exponential rise,” Mayo said.
Flattening the curve and stretching it over a longer period of time can lessen the effect of the illnesses on economics.
“That’s another component of what we’re trying to accomplish,” she said.
The best responses to reduce the spread of either type of flu are:
F Isolation. Stay home when you are sick to avoid spreading illness to co-workers and friends.
F Good hand hygiene, washing hands thoroughly with soap and warm water or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer to get rid of most germs. Avoid touching eyes, nose, or mouth.
F Stay healthy by eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, and getting adequate rest and exercise.
F Use the Dracula move. Cough into the crook of your arm rather than into a hand or into the air.
State officials continue to promote using vaccine to combat the virus, whenever the vaccine is available.
“This reminds us that this virus can be extremely severe for people with underlying health conditions,” said Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, Kansas State Health Officer of the most recent death. “As more vaccine becomes available across the state, we hope everyone who is able will choose to get vaccinated.
“Until that time, it is very important that people take seriously the potential dangers of the disease and recognize the importance of working towards preventing its further spread.”
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