Third Ontario Patient Dies From H1N1 Flu
Posted June 19, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s a disease that many say they’re not really worried about. But there’s still reason for concern, after the third death in Ontario in a patient suffering from the H1N1 flu.
Like the past two fatalities in the province, the patient is said to have had underlying medical conditions that may have hastened the demise.
There are at least 20 people in hospital suffering from the ailment, and it’s believed they also have existing medical problems.
The World Health Organization declared the so-called ‘swine flu’ a pandemic earlier this month, because of its rapid spread around the world. It’s an unusual outbreak, with the majority of cases being called mild and those infected generally gettting better after a week or two.
It also seems to be affecting more young people than the elderly, another unusual anomaly that may have something to do with a kind of immunity built up in older people.
Ontario has quietly recorded 2,258 cases, including 264 new diagnosed patients since Wednesday. Officials here say they learned a lot of lessons from SARS and are prepared to deal with the illness.
Spring and summer are not flu seasons in this part of the world, and there are fears that the virus could mutate in the winter climate of the southern hemisphere and return in our fall or winter far more virulent than it is now.
