• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print

WAUSAU - The death of a 12-year-old Wausau area girl -- the fourth person and second child to die of swine flu in Wisconsin -- continues a pattern of the virus sickening more youths than adults, according to state health officials. Of Wisconsin's nearly 3,500 confirmed or probable swine flu cases as of Friday, 74 percent were people under the age of 19, said Seth Boffeli, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Family Services. "We are watching closely that such a high percentage of those infected are school-age children," he said. More traditional, seasonal flu strains generally hit elderly people the hardest, at least hard enough for them to see a doctor more than younger people, he said. Marathon County Health Officer Julie Willems Van Dijk of Wausau said it's unknown why the number of young people with swine flu is so much higher. "Does someone exposed to swine flu in the 1970s have some protection a young child doesn't have? We don't know that, but there is certainly investigation about it," she said. "There really is no indication the virus is becoming stronger or more virulent." Using data up to June 11, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday there were 21,449 confirmed cases of swine flu and 87 deaths. The deaths occurred in 20 states. The first cases of swine flu were discovered in Mexico and the United States in March and April. Wisconsin health officials have reported three additional deaths since June 11, including Emily Eaton of Wausau. She died Wednesday at St. Joseph Children's Hospital in Marshfield. Her father, Dale, said Friday the family has no idea how the recent sixth-grader contracted the illness. She was admitted to a Wausau hospital early June 12 for what appeared to be a case of pneumonia and the rapid test for swine flu was negative, the father said. Her condition worsened by June 13 and she was transferred to the Marshfield hospital, where more testing discovered swine flu. His daughter was particularly vulnerable to the H1N1 virus because she suffered from episodic immune deficiency since birth and she had a mild form of autism, he said. "She started to deteriorate really fast, like someone turned on the switch," the 44-year-old father said. "She went from singing songs to being non-responsive." The father said he has tested positive for swine flu, too, but feels fine and suffered no more than a sniffle. Given his daughter's immune deficiency, the father said the family was extra cautious -- "We are kind of type A clean people" -- and even canceled a trip to Mexico in March because the girl was ill. There was relief the trip was scrapped once swine flu surfaced, which makes it even more ironic that Emily died of the disease, said Eaton, an attorney. "We were thinking, 'Oh my God, so glad we didn't go because if our child ever got the swine flu, she's a goner,"' Eaton recalled. "We have not gone anywhere. Our trips were like to Wal-Mart and the park. I don't recall leaving town recently. That is the curious nature of this." But his daughter was outgoing, hugging dozens of people a day sometimes, so she had close contact with many people in recent weeks, the father said. "If there is any child by the nature of her personality who probably would be exposed, it probably would be our child," he said. "She was probably the classic victim -- young, with compromised health issues." Wisconsin's other three deaths -- two adults and a child -- occurred in Milwaukee. The adolescent was 14-year-old Tiara Mosley, a freshman at James Madison Academic Campus who was taken to the hospital June 1 and died June 15. Wisconsin's nearly 3,500 confirmed and probable swine flu cases, including 51 in Marathon County, where Eaton died, is the most of any state. Two-thirds of the cases have been in Milwaukee County, Boffeli said. State officials have attributed Wisconsin's high number to an aggressive testing policy early in the outbreak and the fact the state has four laboratories to do the work. "We did not really have backlogs so we were able to process the tests quickly," Boffeli said. The state had tested 11,069 specimens for the disease by June 11, with 27 percent being positive, he said. Some states only tested for the illness if people got sick enough to be hospitalized or had severe symptoms, he said. Early on, Wisconsin's testing found 90 percent were negative for swine flu, leading to now only testing cases with severe symptoms, he said. People with high risk for the N1H1 virus include pregnant women, children from birth to age 2, adults 65 years and older, people with certain chronic conditions and residents of nursing homes and other chronic-care facilities. Typically, flu viruses tend to disappear in the summer months as the weather gets hotter but the swine flu virus is still circulating, Boffeli said. "Whether it is peaking or has reached its plateau is a little tough to tell," he said. "There is no need to panic but at the same time people need to be aware." ---- On the Net: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC: http://www.cdc.gov (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)