H1N1 reporting confusion

[JudoMom]

As y'all know, my friend's 9 month old son died on Sunday. This little boy has been sickly since birth (he's been in and out of the hospital so many time that the nurses knew his mom by name). He was on oxygen, and he had difficulty swallowing anything without aspirating it into his lungs. He also had a bit of water on the brain, and he'd been tested for various serious things like cystic fibrosis, but the doctor's hadn't come up with a definite dx.

 

He ended up in the hospital dx'ed with these things in the following order: pneumonia, bacterial meningitis, sepsis, and the day he died they discovered H1N1. I don't know the details, but after death they also found other things that were wrong with him.

 

According to his cardiologist, the H1N1 was the least of his worries. From what I understand, the meningitis and/or sepsis caused him to go brain dead. Yet, his death is being reported by the health department to the news stations as "the county's first infant H1N1 death, an infant with underlying health conditions".

 

This is such a gross misrepresentation of the facts, IMO. He was an infant who died, who also happened to have H1N1. It really makes me wonder the circumstances of these other deaths that are being reported :confused:.

[Heather in AL]

I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's baby! I must have missed your other post.

 

I agree that it sounds like many are quick to blame H1N1. The "underlying health conditions" statement always makes me wonder just what the 'conditions' were, and how they may have impacted the person who had H1N1. I have asthma, but it's very mild, and I only need an inhaler a few times a year, usually after hard exercise or heavy dusting, and only because the tightening makes me 'whistle' and the noise bothers me. I often wonder if people like me would be reported as having "underlying health conditions" when it has never impacted my life. To me, "underlying health conditions" means something pretty bad and chronic and the addition of H1N1 was just more than the body could handle.

 

It saddens me deeply that your friend is mourning the loss of her child. :crying:

[inactive]

I'm very sorry about your friend's baby... :grouphug:

 

From what I understand from several family members and friends that are healthcare professionals, the H1N1 #s are very erroneous.

 

In our state, they have stopped testing for it...if you present with ANY flu-like symptoms, they are automatically labeling you with H1N1!! :001_huh: (One hospital has a symptom checklist and if you have any 3 of the symptoms, you're automatically labeled has having H1N1.)

 

I'm so sorry that the medical "professionals" have used your friend in this way...it really makes me angry.

[hornblower]

I wrote a bit about this issue in this thread, post 13

http://welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134943

 

 

"

when people die from flu they do often have a secondary infection.

 

Figuring out what the cause of death is, is tricky. We've seen general organ failure a fair bit with this flu. So what do you put on the death cert? Organ failure? Influenza? Secondary bacterial infection? Diabetes? This is why there actually are NO good stats on how many die of seasonal flu. (the #s you hear in the media are estimates that public health comes up with). Some coroners will write flu, some will write heart attack, but the heart attack may have been caused by flu.... There were a few cases I've seen which I think were bizarre in their reporting & went out of their way to list bacterial pneumonia as cause of death, even though the person also tested positive for influenza, and bacterial pneumonia is a common sequela of influenza.

 

Teasing out whether they would have died whether or not they got the flu is the tricky bit. I mean 10-20% of people with HIV/AIDS die from fungal infections - what is the cause of death in their case? The last thing which glommed onto them (the proverbial straw on camel's back)? The underlying condition? The one or more other conditions in between which complicated things? The lack of timely access to medicine?

 

Tricky stuff. "

 

 

to threebundles -

 

I think you must have misunderstood what your hcp friends were saying.

Every death with ILI is tested.

 

Only confirmed fatal cases are counted by the CDC. That's why there's often a delay in the confirmed cases we get results 4-6 weeks after the fact....

It is true all ill people are not tested; but patients who die, as well as people admitted to ICU with ILI ARE tested.

 

I don't think the medical authorities are using this boy's case. It certainly sounds like his case & condition were very grave and any number of viral or bacterial infections may have pushed him over the edge. But it happened to be novel H1N1 so yes, it does need to be counted.

 

Just like with the elderly people & seasonal flu each year - they're often ill and frail but still we count those seasonal flu fatalities as well.

 

 

 

JudoMom - I am very sorry.

[Tree House Academy]

First of all, I am so very sorry for your friend and her loss. :(

 

As for mis-reporting....Well, considering that now they (the CDC) have decided that the actual confirmed cases/deaths were not enough. Yesterday, the increased the "guesstimated" deaths from 1004 to 3900. Why? Because...they can I guess. It is crap and a total mis-representation, IMO. They want to pull these numbers from "models" and it is ridiculous. They went from 124 kids dying to "about 540." What the heck is that??? I know it is really more than 124 (more like 275 or so), but 540??? They changed it to include all the cases of people who died like after recovering from the flu. Huh???

 

My opinion won't be popular, but I think the estimates may have to do with having lots of vaccine and needing more people to use it up. Please, Perry or Hornblower...tell me I am wrong. I want to be wrong. I want them to not have seriously DOUBLED or more the number of deaths for that kind of reason. :(

[Tree House Academy]

Every death with ILI is tested.

 

And this makes that stupid double/triple the death toll model seen even more ignorant!:001_huh::glare:

[hornblower]

I'm still pondering the CDC's change in reporting guidelines etc.

 

But what I'm thinking is that we've been undercounting for some time.

 

And I also think that when I said "every death with ILI is tested" - that was wrong. I think the positives are correct. So when we get an H1N1 death reported, I think that is correct. But I'm gathering that there were ILI cases which were supposed to be tested and were not so we missed some, kwim?

 

I don't think anyone is inflating anything just to use up vaccines. They are bought & paid for. I think public health officials are continuing to consider the risk/benefit of vaccination & the levels of illness in the community and making their recommendations based on that analysis.

[Tammyla]

I'm so sorry.:grouphug:

 

As y'all know, my friend's 9 month old son died on Sunday. This little boy has been sickly since birth (he's been in and out of the hospital so many time that the nurses knew his mom by name). He was on oxygen, and he had difficulty swallowing anything without aspirating it into his lungs. He also had a bit of water on the brain, and he'd been tested for various serious things like cystic fibrosis, but the doctor's hadn't come up with a definite dx.

 

He ended up in the hospital dx'ed with these things in the following order: pneumonia, bacterial meningitis, sepsis, and the day he died they discovered H1N1. I don't know the details, but after death they also found other things that were wrong with him.

 

According to his cardiologist, the H1N1 was the least of his worries. From what I understand, the meningitis and/or sepsis caused him to go brain dead. Yet, his death is being reported by the health department to the news stations as "the county's first infant H1N1 death, an infant with underlying health conditions".

 

This is such a gross misrepresentation of the facts, IMO. He was an infant who died, who also happened to have H1N1. It really makes me wonder the circumstances of these other deaths that are being reported :confused:.