H1N1 virus may have caused school outbreak, caused unrelated death

David Gulliver - posted 11:30 pm Friday, Sept. 4

The H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu, probably caused both an outbreak of flu-like illness in a Sarasota school and, separately, the death of a Sarasota man this week.

County officials announced both events Friday afternoon in a press conference describing their efforts to prepare for the flu virus's spread.

Eleven kindergarten students at Emma E. Booker Elementary School contracted flu-like illness earlier this week, they said. Parents were notified in a letter Friday. The unrelated flu fatality was a 27-year-old man from Sarasota, who died Tuesday night. No further details were released.

Lab results have yet to confirm that H1N1 was the cause of either incident, but the virus accounts for about 98 percent of all current flu cases. The fatality would be Sarasota County’s third. As of Sept. 1, Florida has had 70 H1N1-related deaths.

Dr. William Heymann, medical director of the county Health Department, termed the Booker cases as an “outbreak of influenza-like illness.” His agency is monitoring the students’ conditions. Schools Superintendent Lori White said there have been other clusters of absences, but none linked to flu-like illness yet.

Officials described the Booker outbreak as a success of sorts, because it demonstrated that they have systems in place to spot and isolate flu cases. In that case, the teacher noticed a high number of absences and notified school health officials, who in turn told county health officials, who investigated the case.

“We were able to put it together that this was absenteeism that was related to influenza-like illness,” said Christine Griffith R.N., operations branch director for the county’s H1N1 flu response group. She praised the alert teacher and coordination between departments. “This is an example of what we hoped to happen," she said.

Flu-like illness is spiking in Sarasota County, officials said. Flu complaints in the county’s emergency rooms have risen steadily for eight weeks, now matching the levels set in the spring appearance of H1N1 and in the 2008 seasonal flu, and appear to still be rising.

But that spread does not mean the H1N1 flu is more severe. “So far this illness has not proven to be more serious than the seasonal flu,” Heymann said. “But the seasonal flu can be a deadly illness.” It typically kills 70 to 80 people in Sarasota County and hospitalizes another 350 each year, officials said.

They instruct parents to keep children home if they have a fever or cough, and anyone with flu-like symptoms should see a doctor.

There will be a community information forum on the H1N1 flu at 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, at the Sarasota County Commission Chambers, 1660 Ringling Blvd. in Sarasota. People can attend in person or watch it on Access Sarasota television (Comcast Channel 19 or Verizon Channel 32) and send questions by phone or email.