CDC Reports On Pediatric Swine Flu Deaths

Sept. 4, 2009 — -- Juggling three sick children at once can be a handful, but Kristin Davis, 43, handled three children sick with swine flu cases while battling the same virus herself.

Davis, from Phoenix, Ariz., and her family came down with the infection in April, just as public awareness about the disease began to grow.

"My oldest daughter brought it home from her junior high school," Davis said. "It gradually spread through the family... It was scary because this was when we first got news about [swine flu]."

Despite her initial fears about swine flu -- seeing her youngest daughter's school close because of an outbreak of the virus, not knowing very much about the disease -- Davis said the virus only moderately affected her and her children.

"We had all the standard symptoms -- headache, fever, chills," Davis said. "But I've had flus in past winters where I was much sicker... This time, it was just about trying to keep the kids and myself comfortable."

Davis and her family fully recovered from their bout with swine flu, but others have not been so lucky.

A report released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed children, especially those with chronic medical conditions, can have a severe illness or even die from swine flu.

As of August 8, 36 children under age 18 have died from the H1N1 swine flu virus of 477 total deaths, according to the CDC report. Children younger than 5 years or those with chronic or neurological conditions, including asthma, cardiac problems and cerebral palsy were more likely to be severely affected or die from the infection. Of those children who died, 67 percent did have at least one such condition.

"Most of the children who had fatal H1N1 this past spring had an underlying condition," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, in a press conference yesterday. "There were some children who didn't have an underlying condition and became ill, generally infected also by bacteria."

Frieden added that the data emphasized that certain groups of people, for example, children with special needs or conditions, should be "promptly treated if they develop fever in flu season and are at the front of the line for flu vaccination when it becomes available."