Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Brunswick County woman dies of swine flu

A Brunswick County, N.C., woman died from H1N1 flu complications last week after giving birth, county health department officials said.

The Shallotte, N.C., woman, whose name was not released, died at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., on Oct. 20 and became the first Brunswick County resident to die related to the illness, health officials said Tuesday.

Fred Michael, deputy director of the Brunswick County Health Department, said the woman went to the emergency room at Brunswick Community Hospital and tested positive for swine flu about a month and a half ago. She was treated for swine flu and transferred to New Hanover Hospital in Wilmington, N.C. Eventually she was transferred to Durham, where she gave birth on Oct. 16. Michael said to his knowledge, the baby was born healthy.

The Brunswick County Health Department and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control are urging pregnant women and others at high risk for contracting the flu to receive the newly available H1N1 vaccinations. President Obama declared a state of emergency related to swine flu over the weekend because more than 100 people have died from complications related to the illness, and area hospitals are responding by tightening up their visitation policies.

"The emergency designation seems to be meant for hospitals. It makes reporting efforts easier, but it also helps ease some of the restrictions on administering some vaccines. For instance if you receive Medicare, then technically, doctors should only be administering the vaccine if you come in to be treated for something else, not just for the vaccine,'' Michael said. ``This makes that an easier process."

The Georgetown County Hospital system, Brunswick Community Hospital and Loris Healthcare System already have set new temporary policies, and by Monday of next week, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center and Conway Medical Center also will have new rules in place. Most hospitals are asking that people 18 years old and younger not visit patients in the hospital, that no more than two visitors see a patient at a time and that children avoid areas where pregnant women may be.

Some area hospitals are also requiring visitors to wash their hands before and after seeing patients, and to wear protective gear such as face masks when seeing patients in isolation.

Area hospitals are not administering vaccinations to the public, according to officials at each institution. The hospitals are receiving enough doses to treat pivotal staff members who are in regular contact with patients or those who are pregnant. Julie Rajotte, communications director at Conway Medical Center, said the hospital had given out vaccinations for seasonal flu, but not swine flu. Health officials said people need to understand that seasonal flu vaccines don't protect against swine flu.

"Those vaccines won't protect against swine flu because it's a completely different strand of flu. I have heard concerns about whether the vaccine has been tested or whether it's safe because of how quickly it had to be developed. It's been tested and developed the same way that all flu vaccines are made," Michael said.

The Brunswick County Health Department held a vaccination clinic Tuesday and distributed the last of the 400 doses of H1N1 vaccines that it had received, Michael said. He said the center received an e-mail saying that about 100 more doses would be sent in the next few days. In South Carolina, DHEC received 332,900 doses and had distributed 186,400 doses both through its clinics and through doctors' offices, pharmacies and other agencies that registered to be providers. Both DHEC and the North Carolina county health departments are administering the vaccines for free.

DHEC will also begin administering free vaccinations in schools during clinics starting next Monday.