Wednesday, July 8, 2009
New Information on Indiana Mysterious Death
Last Update: 6:52 pm
New Information:
The Indiana family struck by a fatal medical mystery is thanking everyone for their prayers and asking them to stay calm. The Mcintosh family says doctors still don't know what killed 19-year-old Matt Mcintosh and has his sister Mindy in critical condition.
Teen is state's 1st H1N1 death
19-year-old from Dearborn County had no underlying health problems
By Shari Rudavsky
Posted: July 11, 2009. Post a Comment RecommendE-mailPrintShare.A
A .A Dearborn County teenager who died Sunday in a Cincinnati hospital is Indiana's first fatality from the H1N1 flu virus, health officials said Friday.
Matthew McIntosh, 19, is the second person to die in Ohio of the virus and the first in the Cincinnati area, Hamilton (Ohio) County Coroner O'Dell Owens said. An autopsy revealed no underlying health problems, he said.
Nationwide, there have been 211 deaths attributed to H1N1, or swine flu, and 37,246 confirmed cases.
Since the start of the outbreak, Indiana has had 273 cases and 36 hospitalizations. The death was the first confirmed case in Dearborn County, in the southeastern part of the state.
Indiana State Department of Health officials declined to confirm McIntosh's identity or provide further details, saying such information could mislead the public into complacency.
"If we focus on one individual, we could give false hope or false security to everyone," said Dr. Judith Monroe, state health commissioner. "We don't feel we have the right to do that."
Instead, Monroe emphasized that people should continue to take precautions against the virus by covering their mouths when they cough, washing their hands and staying home if they are ill.
While the disease has been mild in most cases, people with asthma, other respiratory conditions, heart disease and possibly obesity appear to be at increased risk for more severe illness, she said.
Older people may have immunity. Only 6 percent of those hospitalized are older than 65.
Seasonal influenza, which kills about 36,000 people a year, tends to strike the very old and very young worse than young, healthy adults.
Health officials are gearing up to fight both flu viruses this fall. On Friday, the federal government announced it will make nearly $7.3 million available to Indiana to help the state prepare.
Unlike seasonal flu, the H1N1 virus is spreading despite the warmer weather, Monroe said.
"This is July. It's hot and humid, and we have a circulating influenza virus," she said. "That is unusual."
From the beginning, McIntosh's case was unusual. McIntosh passed out in a barn. Doctors thought something in the barn was to blame.
"Normally a swine flu case would not be a coroner's case," Owens said.
McIntosh's older sister also fell ill around the same time, as did his father and a friend, Owens said. His sister, who has tested negative for the virus, remains in intensive care. Both the friend and the father are recovering.
On Friday, McIntosh's H1N1 swab came back positive, solving the mystery.
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