A 98-year-old woman is said to have become the first flu death in Santa Clara County, Santa Clara County Public Health Department oficials announced Thursday afternoon.
Dr. Sara Cody, a health deputy for the department, said officials had learned about the death through one of two flu death track systems used by local authorities.
The woman was suffering from other medical conditions, Cody said, adding that although the death is notable, there are across the country 35,000 deaths occurring every year as a result of the influenza virus.
Cody said to prevent and reduce the risk of getting the flu, it's recommended everyone get a flu shot, wash hands frequently, stay away from those who are ill and strongly encouraging those who are sick to stay home.
"There's no reason for alarm," Cody said. "The death highlights that we have a flu epidemic every winter ... and every single winter people get very sick, require hospitalization and even die ... It serves as a reminder that influenza is never to be taken lightly and everyone can take steps to prevent it."
Cody explained the flu virus can be lethal in the elderly, particularly in those with chronic medical conditions such as lung and heart conditions, or other chronic illnesses. "They're at greater risk from getting severely ill ... for example, someone who's 98 years old and is frail and gets influenza is at much greater risk to get bacterial pneumonia on top of that and it can be lethal."
In children, different kinds of influenza viruses can affect a large amount of such population, in particular young infants and toddlers. "I haven't necessarily seen that pattern this year ... but it is something we track through pediatric hospitalizations."
Amy Cornell, a spokeswoman for the department, said someone over the age of 65 had died Tuesday.
A press conference on Thursday at the Health Department in San Jose, where Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, the department's health officer, addressed questions from media about the death.
Early this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported influenza activity was continuing to increase in the United States and most of the country was experiencing high levels of influenza-like-illness (ILI).
“Reports of influenza-like-illness (ILI) are nearing what have been peak levels during moderately severe seasons,” according to Dr. Joe Bresee.
The CDC said it was continuing to recommend influenza vaccination and antiviral treatment when appropriate.
“While we can’t say for certain how severe this season will be, we can say that a lot of people are getting sick with influenza and we are getting reports of severe illness and hospitalizations,” Bresee said on Jan. 4.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu "The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic which infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the arctic, and killed 20 to 50 million of them—1 to 3 percent of the world's population at the time—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history" If we scaled this up to current world population, this would be 90 - 230 million people. This was less than 100 years ago; this woman was a survivor from that period. Vaccines have had an huge impact on longevity. You could argue that it is unnatural for people to die on average at nearly 80; in ancient times the average life expectancy was in the upper 20s. Vaccine and antibiotics are a big part of that increase. Vaccines are a way of training the human immune system to naturally protect itself against viruses - with minimal risk to the body itself. For each person getting vaccinated, they reduce the risk of those who don't get vaccinated from getting infected. It's a social responsibility. Not to cause undue alarm - recent strains of flu are probably not nearly as bad as the Spanish flu - but don't take the importance of vaccination lightly.
Admittedly, I haven't gotten flu shots every year; but it's better if I do, for myself and those around me.
This season was a double whammy for me. My immune system built defenses against both the California and Ohio strains. Plus whatever I was exposed to in the airports between California and Texas. I think I'm good for the rest of the year...unless there's a strain going around Croatia.