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Ky. reports first H1N1 death
By Mary Meehan and Jim Warren - mmeehan1@herald-leader.com
FRANKFORT - While state health officials urged diligence in taking common sense measures to combat H1N1 flu, the potential impact was underscored as the first Kentucky death from the disease was announced at the Governor's Pandemic Influenza Summit on Thursday.
A Fayette County resident has died of H1N1 or swine flu. The governor's office announced that a woman in her 50s with "significant underlying health conditions" was the state's first confirmed death.
So far, worldwide, some 1,800 people have died of the disease. About 1,500 of those have died in North or South America. About 500 Kentuckians die from the seasonal flu each year.
But state health officials stressed caution.
"We will get through this,"' said Brigadier Genera John Heltzel, director of Kentucky Emergency Management. "There will be a spring."
About 1,400 people attended a flu summit in Frankfort Thursday. The day-long conference highlighted the potentially deadly nature of the H1N1 virus and the simple steps that individuals can take to keep the disease from spreading - like washing your hands frequently, staying home from work if you are sick and keeping kids out of school when they are ill.
A tiny bottle of hand sanitizer was given out to each summit participant.
Last spring, when the first Kentuckians came down with H1N1 in the week before the Kentucky Derby, the state tried to track individual cases. As the number of cases has grown, health officials have turned their efforts to educating the public about how the H1N1 virus differs from the seasonal flu, the importance of vaccination and trying to minimize the impact and spread of the disease
"Prevention is our best defense and education is our best offense," said Terry Holiday, Kentucky's commissioner of education.