Nov 4, 2009 3:02 pm US/Eastern
Swine Flu Causes Another Death In New Jersey
NEWARK (CBS) ―
Another New Jersey resident has died from swine flu.
State Health and Senior Services Commissioner Heather Howard says the 42-year-old Middlesex County man was hospitalized with underlying medical conditions. No other details were provided.
At least 20 people in the Garden State have died from the H1N1 virus. State officials confirmed last week that a 17-year-old student who attended Rancocas Valley High School in Burlington County had died.
Howard says about 775,000 vaccines have been shipped to New Jersey, more than half the 1.4 million that have been ordered.
The commissioner says swine flu has been confirmed in all 21 counties and that New Jersey is one of 48 states where the virus is considered to be widespread.
Meanwhile, new research shows H1N1 is now targeting people of every age, not just the young. Swine flu hit California first and fast. Their Department of Public Health began looking at who was affected and just how sick they became.
"We actually found that over 30-percent of the patients who were admitted and hospitalized required intensive care and mechanical ventilation and over 10-percent died," said Dr. Janice K. Louie of the California Department of Public Health.
Tiffany Lee, 16, was part of that 30-percent. On the mend now, she's been in the hospital for more than three months. Most of that time she spent in intensive care on a ventilator and unable to breathe on her own.
"Well it definitely was a surprise because I didn't expect to get that sick," Lee said.
Dr. Arup Roy-Burman treated Tiffany for a myriad of symptoms, including a 109 degree fever, liver and kidney failure.
Steve Adams, Tiffany's father, said, "she got really ill really quickly and the severity of her sickness just started escalating."
Dr. Janice Louie led research looking at 1,088 patients who were hospitalized or died with H1N1 from April to August of this year.
The study is featured this week in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
They found that H1N1 infections can be life threatening even if you don't necessarily have the risk factors for severe complications.
Even healthy people can end up hospitalized.
"And another interesting fact, we found that there is a perception that the elderly are protected and have some pre-existing immunity when in fact in our study, if the elderly were admitted and severely ill they often ended up dying," Louie said.
As for Tiffany, she is hoping to be home for the holidays.
The study also reports that infants under six months had a higher risk of hospitalization and that rapid tests used by doctors to quickly diagnose the seasonal flu weren't as reliable in detecting the H1N1.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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