Jun 12, 2009 4:31 pm US/Eastern
Swine Flu Claims Life Of 11-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
-
-
An H1N1 strain of the swine flu virus, viewed through a microscope.
AP
The swine flu outbreak has claimed the life of an 11-year-old girl from Brookly, the first New York City school student to die from the H1N1 virus.
The victim, identified as Sarah Michel, was in the sixth grade at IS 609 in Boro Park. Michel was sent home from school last week to see a doctor after she began showing symptoms. She died just five days later. Her relatives said she had a heart defect, caught the flu, then had a heart attack. A letter was sent home to parents Thursday informing them of the sad news and telling them classes will continue as usual.
Michel's classmate Michelle Menjivar felt sick on Friday, so she left school early. She said Michel's death has been hard on everyone.
"It was devastating. Everyone was crying and today is her funeral. I'm going to go to her funeral," said Menjivar.
"We were all horrified, it's a terrible thing when a child has to lose their life from the swine flu or any illness for that matter," added school secretary Linda Kranza. "We're just upset about the whole thing."
Teacher Marc Landas said it helped to talk to his students about Michel and swine flu in class. "Essentially they're handling it a lot better I think than expected. They're sad," he said.
Nearly 5,000 new cases of swine flu have been reported in the United States in the last week. Since it was first detected in April in Mexico and the U.S., swine flu has reached 74 countries, infecting nearly 30,000 people. The World Health Organization has formally declared it a pandemic, which means a global outbreak is underway. Just last week, the New York City health department estimated that nearly half a million people with flu-like symptoms could have undiagnosed swine flu.
"We want countries to understand that this is not a very serious, severe pandemic. The symptoms in most cases are not bad and in some cases people will not even know they have the virus in their body," said WHO spokesperson Peter Cordingley.
Now the race is on to create a vaccine and on Friday, pharmaceutical company Novartis announced it's produced the first batch. The company said it will likely be available by September.
While there's a lot of fear surrounding the pandemic, it may help to put things in perspective. So far swine flu has caused 144 deaths worldwide, while the ordinary flu kills up to half a million people a year.
The Health Department said most of the patients hospitalized with swine flu belonged to groups that had a higher risk of severe illness or complications from influenza, including:
- People who are over 65, under age 2, or pregnant
- People with chronic lung problems, such as asthma or emphysema
- People with chronic heart, kidney, liver or blood disorders
- People with neurological disorders that can cause breathing problems
- People with diabetes
- People whose immune systems are weakened due to illness or medication
- People under 18 years who are on long-term aspirin therapy.
CDC Swine Flu Facts Sheet
Q&A: What Is Swine Flu?
Learn At Home Student Guides
CBS News Interactive: Fighting The Flu
CDC Emergency Updates Via Twitter
Swine Flu Twitter Live Search Results
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
World's Most Useless Facts
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments