CIDRAP — CDC Reports First H3N2v Death as Cases Rise to 290
Federal health officials today reported the first death from the summer outbreak of a new H3N2 flu virus, in an older adult from Ohio who had multiple underlying conditions and had direct exposure to pigs at a fair.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also reported 12 more infections with the virus, a swine H3N2 flu variant (H3N2v) that has picked up the matrix gene from the 2009 H1N1 virus. The new cases push the national total to 290, according to the latest CDC and state case counts.
The number of states reporting cases remained at 10, with Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all reporting additional infections.
The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) said today that a 61-year-old woman from Madison County died earlier this week after becoming ill with H3N2v. It said she had other medical conditions, but the influenza infection may have contributed to her death.
The ODH added that she had direct contact with pigs at the Ross County fair before she got sick. So far the state has reported 102 H3N2v cases.
Lyn Finelli, DrPH, chief of the surveillance and outbreak response team in the CDC’s influenza division, said in a statement that the CDC is saddened to hear about the death and, as for seasonal flu, continues to be concerned about people who have conditions that raise the risk of complications from the disease. The CDC has urged people in those risk groups, such as young children, those with underlying medical conditions, and older people, to avoid swine barns at fairs this summer.
“These people should absolutely not have contact with pigs or visit pig arenas at fairs this summer,” she said.
She urged clinicians to ask all patients with flulike symptoms about pig exposure and to administer antiviral medication to those who have risk factors for flu complications without waiting for test results and whether or not they were exposed to pigs. “Like with seasonal flu, prompt antiviral treatment in a high risk person can mean the difference between having a milder illness versus a very serious illness that could result in a hospital stay or even death,” Finelli said in the statement.
Fifteen patients so far have been hospitalized for H3N2v infections, two more than the previous week, according to CDC totals.
In its update last week, the CDC reported three instances of limited human-to-human spread, and it said today that though such spread is probably continuing sporadically, so far no sustained community transmission has been detected.