6 Alabama children with flu on life support

[scottmcpherson]

6 area children with flu on life support
Number, severity of early cases alarm officials
Friday, December 22, 2006
LISA OSBURN
News staff writer
Six children are on life support at Children's Hospital fighting severe cases of influenza, hospital officials said.

The severity of the cases, many developing in the past two weeks, has raised concerns in Birmingham's pediatric medical community, said Dr. David Kimberlin, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at UAB.

"It is not the volume and not even the time of year that is jumping out at us," he said. "It is more that, for a number of otherwise healthy children, they are ending up on life support from the flu. The number of times that is occurring - it seems out of the ordinary, at least for now."


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[Blue]

Re: 6 Alabama children with flu on life support

Can you provide a link for this post?

[scottmcpherson]

Re: 6 Alabama children with flu on life support

Sorry, Blue, here it is:

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1166793395185660.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

[scottmcpherson]

Update -- 6 Alabama children with flu on life support

I spoke with the author of the story. I had specifically asked whether or not Alabama officials had typed the influenza and, if so, did it match the strains in the vaccine.

Only one child remains in the hospital; doctors are seeing both A and B influenzas in this outbreak; none of the children had been vaccinated; the virus(es) does/do match the WHO target; and the working theory is that the drop in reported cases is directly related to the closure of schools for the holidays.

[sharon sanders]

Re: 6 Alabama children with flu on life support

Thanks Scott.

[Sally Furniss]

Re: 6 Alabama children with flu on life support

More about this story here

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14422&highlight=alabama

[Blue]

Re: 6 Alabama children with flu on life support

Thank you for that link and the follow up.

[Sonny]

CDC asked to probe severe pediatric flu in Birmingham area

Associated Press

<!-- begin body-content --> BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been asked to investigate several severe influenza cases in the Birmingham area that have caused at least nine children to be hospitalized, officials said.

Five of six children who were on life support at Children's Hospital have improved, but three more children were admitted with severe flu cases in the past week, hospital officials said.

"I would say that the situation is a little better than last week, but not substantially better," said Dr. David Kimberlin, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"There are still a lot of children going to the emergency room and a number of children admitted to the hospital."

Kimberlin told The Birmingham News in a story Friday that the CDC in Atlanta was contacted after the severity of pediatric flu cases raised concerns in Birmingham's medical community.

He said none of the original six children on life support had been vaccinated. Doctors have identified the presence of both A and B strains of the virus and the CDC will further research the flu strains that were causing some of the more severe cases.

Alabama, Florida and Georgia are the three states experiencing widespread outbreaks of flu, according to the CDC.
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http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/l...l/16346098.htm