Two Teens Die from Flu

[BB]

Has anyone heard of teens dying from the flu? And two in one region within a week's time? And so quickly...spitting up blood? Just thought I'd give a headsup.

**************************************
Howard Co. Teen Dies
from Flu


Wednesday, 25 Feb 2009


ELLICOTT CITY, Md. - Howard County officials say a local teenager has died from the flu, and the Frederick County Health Department is also investigating the death of another teenage boy to determine if the flu may also have taken his life.

Officials say the boy who died in Howard County has been identified as 15-year-old Zachary Weiland of Woodbine. He died Sunday at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. He was a 10th grader at Mount Airy Christian Academy.

Now, health officials want to get out important information about what happened and how it can be prevented.

The news of Weiland's death stunned some parents, and health officials.

"It's quite unusual," said Dr. Peter Beilenson, a Howard Co. health officer.

"According to the Centers for Disease Control, there've only been nine pediatric deaths from the flu this entire four-month season in the entire United States."

Dr. Beilenson says the teen who died was not killed by some virulent strain of the flu. Instead, he says, the teen had a very rapid course of the flu, and died within 24 hours of being seen. The doctor also says we're having a late-season flu this year, but it's not too late to get a flu shot.

Some areas even have drive-thru flu clinics. Dr. Beilenson says it's important to know the danger signs that your regular flu needs professional treatment.

If you're having trouble breathing, prolonged fever for more than a few days, a bluish tinge to the lips or nails, or changes in your mental state like being more irritated or confused than usual, you should see a doctor.

The best offense, according to medical experts, is a good defense. They advise getting a flu shot or the flu mist.

There are also some other flu concerns around the region. The Frederick County Health Department is investigating whether 13-year-old Ian Matthew Willis, an Urbana Middle School student who died last week, may have had the flu.

Also, Immaculate Conception Elementary school in Towson, Maryland is closing for the rest of the week as a precaution because so many students there are suffering from flu-like symptoms.

The Howard County Health Department says the sickness spreading through the Immaculate Conception School does not appear to be the flu, and instead it appears to be similar to the norovirus that frequently plagues cruise ships.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/022509_howard_county_flu_death

[tygerkittn]

Thanks for the heads up! This bears watching.

[CEJ10]

That is VERY strange and concerning!

[Limner]

I do know the respiratory virus that is going around is taking a toll on schools. We talked about it at church yesterday evening; it was my first time out of the house in a week. One Mom said her DD's teacher said there were four or five kids out with it, in a small Christian school class. Buncha folks missing at church, and half of the rest were hacking up hairballs (or so it sounded...)

[Just Kate]

That's quite close to Fort Dietrich where they have the Biological Testing labs :shock:

Never heard of anyone dying of the regular flu in such short time span and two cases together gets my attention. :sad:

[alixi]

I don't trust this. I'd be surprised to see that this is just a garden variety flu virus for real.

Flu shots don't work either. The people given the shot get just as many flu viruses as those who didn't. Not only that, the flu shot has mercury based thimerasol in it and I'd stay away from it.

[CEJ10]

Bird flu, from the little I know about it, hits kids immune system more rapidly than adults. This needs to be watched closely!

[LittleFish]

My son attends a small parochial high school, about 300 students total. He is home with flu the last two days. When I called into the school office to report his absence, the secretary said that there were a lot of students out with it.

More related to this post, however, last week before my son was ill, he told me that everyone at school has something ... flu, strep, bronchitis ... and that one of the girls was coughing up blood at a ball game that night. I thought he was exaggerating but I will watch him closely, and I will ask after that girl.

[Limner]

Bird flu, from the little I know about it, hits kids immune system more rapidly than adults. This needs to be watched closely!
Spanish flu did the same...hit the young folks esp hard. OK, this is weird.....:shock:

[wschaub]

well, that is alarming isn't it? are they 100% sure it is the flu? if so I hope this isn't going to be a repeat of the 1918 influenza pandemic. I know for a fact the original strain has been experimented with and still exists in labs.

[AnnieOakley]

Sent this to DS because he just got back from a cruise very ill with the flu.

[tygerkittn]

Bird flu causes a cytokine storm, so those with the strongest immune systems are MORE likely to die, while those with weaker immune systems, such as the elderly, and small children, are less likely to die. The majority of deaths from the Spanish flu were teens to 45 year olds. That's why it was such a blow to society, the workers were more likely to die.

[farm boy]

Bird flu causes a cytokine storm, so those with the strongest immune systems are MORE likely to die, while those with weaker immune systems, such as the elderly, and small children, are less likely to die. The majority of deaths from the Spanish flu were teens to 45 year olds. That's why it was such a blow to society, the workers were more likely to die.

This is true. You basically drown from pus filled lungs. :sad:

[preparinginidaho]

That's quite close to Fort Dietrich where they have the Biological Testing labs :shock:

Never heard of anyone dying of the regular flu in such short time span and two cases together gets my attention. :sad:

They will just not leave it alone. They have to dig it up out of the ground. They have to mess with everything. What I read about 1918, started with soldiers getting their shots. :evil:

[wschaub]

They need some way to de-populate the earth and a good plague with a sufficiently long incubation period and a high mortality rate is just the thing needed to get the job done and kill off all the useless eaters while all the real people are protected in their shelters.

then all they have to do is come back above ground and mop up the survivors and they will have their utopia as outlined in the guide stones.

[CEJ10]

They need some way to de-populate the earth and a good plague with a sufficiently long incubation period and a high mortality rate is just the thing needed to get the job done and kill off all the useless eaters while all the real people are protected in their shelters.

then all they have to do is come back above ground and mop up the survivors and they will have their utopia as outlined in the guide stones.

What are the "guide stones"?

[wschaub]

What are the "guide stones"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

[preparinginidaho]

What are the "guide stones"?

Something we should be ashamed of as Americans and have to go hummm why Americans would allow them to stand on American soil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

[CEJ10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

Thanks I will read up on it.

[Buttercup]

Remember kelee posted a story a few days ago about scientists infecting piglets with the spanish flu? Where did that take place?

[kelee877]

Remember kelee posted a story a few days ago about scientists infecting piglets with the spanish flu? Where did that take place?

I don,t think the piggies did it:-D

BUT and there is always that BUT....flu shots...they have 10 major flu,s to pick from and the most they put into a flu shot in a year is 3, so it becomes a guessing game...well last year they missed all together...


Well guess what they missed again this year, so much for guessing...they usually hit 2 of 10 major strains going around...

Up north here we have been hit severly with the cold and flu bug...I live in a retirement town and the seniors that recevied the shot still got sick, so this year you have 100 times more chance of catching the flu...

I picked up my lovely batch from shopping at the grocery store....


If we see more of this occuring then I would sit at the edge of my seat and be worried...could mean that last years strain has mutated with this years strain....

It can,t be Bird Flu....

[kelee877]

Here is it:see guys I,m just not a prettty face and a green dot chaser:mrgreen:

I have been watching Bird Flu for 7 years..and I may screw up amounts and dates sometimes,but there is alot I remember..and I am not the greatest English writer...:oops:




http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/front/article/538120


Flu shot may be for wrong strain

Published Tuesday January 13th, 2009



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A1

By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com

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Scientists may have protected people against the wrong strain of influenza, but an official with New Brunswick's Health Department says nobody should panic.

Early medical reports from Canada, the United States and Britain indicate that this year's edition of the flu shot wasn't formulated to protect people from the most common strain of the season.

Influenza is broken down into two different types of infections - influenza A and influenza B. There are two common forms of influenza B strains and only one prospers during flu season.

The shot was designed to ward off the B/Yamagata strain, but so far the majority of reported cases have involved the slightly different B/Victoria strain.

Shelley Landsburg, program consultant for the Health Department, said scientists spend a lot of time trying to predict the most virulent forms of the virus to protect people, but it's not always perfect.
She said people shouldn't worry because the province hasn't had any reports of influenza B yet.

"There's always concern every year about, 'Is the vaccine going to cover this specific type?' However, it's still the best method to prevent influenza," she said. "In New Brunswick, to date, we don't have any confirmed cases of (the B virus) yet. We've had one confirmed case of influenza A."

Landsburg said the current flu shot would still provide some protection from both influenza B strains.
"Usually there is cross protection because (the strains) are in the same type of family.''

She said getting the flu shot is still a benefit because it fends off some strains of the virus.
"Sometimes it's not totally 100 per cent matched," she said. "But at the same time, usually there's enough protection in the flu vaccine that we recommend it."

[Bulldog30]

They will just not leave it alone. They have to dig it up out of the ground. They have to mess with everything. What I read about 1918, started with soldiers getting their shots. :evil:

No, I dont think it started this way. Vaccine shots for troops was practically non-exsistant in those days. Also, they would be more inclined to have it spread amongst themselves due to the nature of the military. Close quarters leads to this and anyone who served in the Military has experienced how a cold will ripple through the ranks in a squad bay (any other Marines out there experience this besides me?). The thing that I find frightening is that recent research has come to show that the Spanish flu was a type of bird flu that our bodies have never dealt with....makes you wonder how bad this new avian flu will be when it finally takes hold and I think it will...

[johnswahoo]

I have the FLU right now...no lie its horrible. Went to the doctors, came home with tamiflu. first off the crap taste disgusting. Secondly the symptoms start as a scratchy pain in the upper chest near the base of throat. chills in all joints, deep muscle aches and severe eye soreness, plus the nasal congestions...I don't know how long the incubation period is but I went asap to the doctors...1st time ever diagnosis with the flu...I am not dead yet!

[Pastor Guest]

Pandemic and Avian Flu


Very strange indeed, especially when you consider I went to a meeting this
past Tuesday evening at the County Library about pandemic and avian flu.

The meeting was primarily for EMS, public health workers and Pastors.

Here is a link to the pamphlet we were given.

http://www.publichealthathens.com/PandemicFlu_Brochure_12pnl.pdf

I was curious as to why, after a couple of years silence about the flu,
they were warning people about it. I asked if there was something that
they were seeing that indicated an outbreak was about to occur. I was
told that there wasn't any indication that an outbreak was imminent, but
it had been so long since there has been a pandemic flu that we were
probably overdue.

Oh, by the way, the Georgia Guidestones are about 20 miles from us in
an adjoining county.

[janetn]

You wont know what these kids died from untill an autopsy is done. saying its the "flu" that killed them is untrue and fear mongering. Note the cheerleading at the end of the article - get your flu shot :twisted: Most people who die from the flu die from secondary infections. This year a particularly nasty pneumonia is going around. This is from one of the docs I talked to at work. We have had some quick deaths from this pneumonia, its fast and strong. It is likely these kids died from another infection either secondary to the flu or something else entirely, but the results from the autopsies probably wont be reported.

[Tesla'sMom]

One of the parochial schools here closed school today because of the flu. That's not a bad idea- shut down school for a week and let the viruses calm down. If they have to go to school a week longer in June, no big deal.

It's been a lot of years since we've had a nationwide flu epidemic. I remember the Hong Kong Flu around 1969. Knew of someone whose wife got pneumonia and died- just a young woman too.

It may be that this generation of kids doesn't have any immunity to what's flying around right now. Or perhaps they're so loaded up with vaccines in early childhood now that it has compromised, rather than built up, their immune systems.

Sad- you just don't think of teenagers dying from the flu.

[AnnieOakley]

After seeing I am Legend, I don't want any shots. :(

[Sarah]

You are correct, secondary infections are often the culprit of flu deaths. The infectious disease journals have been pointing out that MRSA pneumonia + flu has been a deadly combination.

[hawklady]

If these two deaths were part of H1N1.
Does anyone else find this odd?

[kelee877]

Remember kelee posted a story a few days ago about scientists infecting piglets with the spanish flu? Where did that take place?


humm who is this kelee we should ask her....:mrgreen:

oh and if you think I will remember the artical...good luck I have Mexican Flu brain over load....

[cyberiot]

If these two deaths were part of H1N1.
Does anyone else find this odd?

Hawklady, reading this archival thread was a real eye-opener. The symptoms of the February cases rather closely match what's blowing around now.

I very seriously wonder if we're two months into the first wave of A/H1N1/2009. And I also very seriously wonder if the bug many of us have wrestled with the past few weeks is part of it.

[momof23goats]

thanks for the heads up.

[Spike n Ree]

Howard Co. Teen Dies
from Flu


Wednesday, 25 Feb 2009

And that long ago! WoW!

[Wolverine]

well, that is alarming isn't it? are they 100% sure it is the flu? if so I hope this isn't going to be a repeat of the 1918 influenza pandemic. I know for a fact the original strain has been experimented with and still exists in labs.

FLASHBACK - SCIENTISTS RECREATE DEADLY 1918 SPANISH FLU (http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/2009/04/25/flashback-scientists-recreate-deadly-1918-spanish-flu/)

Filed Under Pandemic (http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/category/pandemic/)




US scientists who resurrected the 1918 spanish flu virus that killed as many as 50 million people say they are beginning to understand why it caused such a deadly pandemic and say it could happen again.
They have begun comparing the genetic mutations in the 1918 flu to those being seen in the H5N1 avian flu virus, which is killing tens of millions of poultry and some people in Asia, in the hope of being able to predict and perhaps even prevent a similar pandemic.


“We felt we had to recreate the virus and run these experiments to understand the biological properties that made the 1918 virus so exceptionally deadly,” Terrence Tumpey of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who helped write the reports published jointly this week in the journals Nature and Science.

http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/2009/04/25/flashback-scientists-recreate-deadly-1918-spanish-flu/

[Wolverine]

Thank You BB, for the head's up.

Little fish, you & your family are in our prayers through this.

I'm a little on edge over this, due to the fact that my Youngest has a heart condition...Tachycardia arrythmia, and any illness causes additional strain on her. w

[TOTO]

BLOOD can be one indicator of a hemorragic (blood) fever.
There are several.
I have been disputed here on TOL for posting this new Obamaflu virus cocktail has hemorragic elements.
It has tracers from the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak - which was caused by vaccine.

YOU have posted this BLOOD post. GOOD.
Not good for that person - but good to alert TOL this Obamaflu (not pig) may very well be hemorragic.

EBOLA is only ONE of several in the hemorragic class.
I have researched this in the past and checked with a doctor friend.
He actually had not known hanta was under hemmorragics.

Just because I investigate with MANY sources doesnt make me wrong
because a few wish to disagree.
TOL peeps know we have baddies on our board. (I could use Hawk's term - Lucies)

Like Alex Jones, Steve Quayle, HAWK, and others - I am striving hard for correct information amid hype and false.

Here is a quick websearch ....

Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) refer to a group of illnesses that are caused by several distinct families of viruses. In general, the term "viral hemorrhagic fever" is used to describe a severe multisystem syndrome (multisystem in that multiple organ systems in the body are affected). Characteristically, the overall vascular system is damaged, and the body's ability to regulate itself is impaired. These symptoms are often accompanied by hemorrhage (bleeding); however, the bleeding is itself rarely life-threatening. While some types of hemorrhagic fever viruses can cause relatively mild illnesses, many of these viruses cause severe, life-threatening disease.

SYMPTOMS

Specific signs and symptoms vary by the type of VHF, but initial signs and symptoms often include marked fever, fatigue, dizziness, muscle aches, loss of strength, and exhaustion. Patients with severe cases of VHF often show signs of bleeding under the skin, in internal organs, or from body orifices like the mouth, eyes, or ears. However, although they may bleed from many sites around the body, patients rarely die because of blood loss. Severely ill patient cases may also show shock, nervous system malfunction, coma, delirium, and seizures. Some types of VHF are associated with renal (kidney) failure.

Hantavirus infection clinical severity ranges from mild to severe and may cover Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and hemorrhagic fever.
(Journal of microbiology)

Although hemorrhagic fevers are regarded as emerging diseases, they probably have existed for many years. (healthline)

check also
http://www.nonaiswa.org/?p=3469

.

[TOTO]

The 1918 flu hit only the vaccinated.
Those who had refused the shots escaped the flu!

Article by Eleanora McBean, Ph.D., N.D.

The disease had the characteristics of the black death (Bubonic Plague) added to typhoid, diphtheria, pneumonia, smallpox, paralysis and all the diseases the people had been vaccinated with immediately following World War 1. Practically the entire population had been injected 'seeded' with a dozen or more diseases (toxic serums). When all those doctor-made diseases started breaking out all at once it was tragic. That pandemic dragged on for 2 years, kept alive with the addition of more poison drugs.

Many vaccines also cause other diseases besides the one for which they are given. For instance, smallpox vaccine often causes syphilis, paralysis, leprosy, and cancer. Polio shots, diphtheria toxin-antitoxin, typhoid vaccine, as well as measles, tetanus and all other shots often cause various other stages of disease such as post-vaccinal encephalitis (inflammation of the brain,) paralysis, spinal meningitis, blindness, cancer (sometimes within two years,) tuberculosis, arthritis, kidney disease, heart disease (heart failure sometimes within minutes after the shot and sometimes several hours later.) Nerve damage and many other serious conditions also follow the injections.

http://www.whale.to/vaccine/sf1.html

Thot this shd be a separate post

[Limner]

Remember kelee posted a story a few days ago about scientists infecting piglets with the spanish flu? Where did that take place?

Hey, Kelee, do you remember the piggy flu shot post Buttercup is talking about? Might be an interesting dot...and you can color it green if you want to! :mrgreen:

Several of our group of friends have been wondering if maybe we have already HAD the flu going around. Had half the congregation down with it, including Hubby and myself; took several weeks to finally start feeling ourselves again. Hadn't been that sick in ages.

[Summerthyme]

Umm... just to knock some of the edge off the hysteria (not everyone's posts, obviously)....

YES, "spitting up blood" can be ONE small sign of a hemorrhagic fever. BUT... NO ONE is going to be WALKING AROUND at a social event *once their Ebola or other disease gets that far along*!!!

You can take that to the bank... or tuck it under your mattress LOL!

Once someone with a hemorrhagic disease begins showing visible blood, they are already hemorraging inside. They leak blood from every body orifice.

On the original story- it's very possible it was H1N1. But sometimes young folks have an undiagnosed heart or other health issue, and no one knows until they die unexpectedly... often after a "minor" febrile illness.

My own gut feeling for a few days now has been that this HAS BEEN in the US, and that the Mexican deaths are actually part of the early second wave. Too many reports from people I trust (who don't exaggerate symptoms, and who are medically knowledgeable) about a really vicious "flu"... and it didn't seem to make any difference if they got a flu shot or not.

Gonna bear careful watching for several months at least.

Summerthyme

[Wolverine]

Umm... just to knock some of the edge off the hysteria (not everyone's posts, obviously)....

YES, "spitting up blood" can be ONE small sign of a hemorrhagic fever. BUT... NO ONE is going to be WALKING AROUND at a social event *once their Ebola or other disease gets that far along*!!!

You can take that to the bank... or tuck it under your mattress LOL!

Once someone with a hemorrhagic disease begins showing visible blood, they are already hemorraging inside. They leak blood from every body orifice.

On the original story- it's very possible it was H1N1. But sometimes young folks have an undiagnosed heart or other health issue, and no one knows until they die unexpectedly... often after a "minor" febrile illness.

My own gut feeling for a few days now has been that this HAS BEEN in the US, and that the Mexican deaths are actually part of the early second wave. Too many reports from people I trust (who don't exaggerate symptoms, and who are medically knowledgeable) about a really vicious "flu"... and it didn't seem to make any difference if they got a flu shot or not.

Gonna bear careful watching for several months at least.

Summerthyme

I guess that's why I'm on edge over this, due To my DD's heart condition.

I've also felt that it is a second wave in Mexico., due to the little boy that was supposedly the first to have been infected ,occurred back in March.

[Summerthyme]

Wolverine... I understand, and I certainly wasn't pointing the "hysterical" comment at you.

Your situation is precisely WHY we need accurate info from the government or CDC or SOMEONE. Because, all other potential issues with the rare outlier possibilities (cytokine storm, etc) aside... SOME folks have health issues which could make a new virus dangerous to them, even if it's a "minor" illness for most.

And it's scant comfort if it's your child who gets deathly ill from a "mild" virus!

Summerthyme

[Limner]

I remember in the late 60's, a case of cold/flu that I had in Jr, High, that hung on for weeks; I was coughing up blood. Didn't go see the Dr though, my parents were both teachers and the only times we could stay home is if we were throwing up. And Dr visits were limited to strep throat and head injuries. Nope, didn't have hemorrhagic fever or TB; I think I just coughed hard enough to injure some little vessels in the lungs. And I obviously lived thru it....

But I was a basically healthy kid, and not one with underlying problems like Wolverine's DD....and I can sure understand his concern.

[Purity]

I found it interesting that this thread was started back in Feb. That's exactly when I was so sick with the flu. Six weeks of flu, three of those weeks I could barely get out of bed and three weeks of laryngitis so bad that I couldn't even make a sound when I coughed or sneezed.

I honestly believe this flu started way before it was announced.

[Spike]

My six year old came down with the flu on Feb 15th. Finally broke down and took her to the doctor on Feb 20th after her temperature would not go below 102 degrees. She was so lethargic that all she could do was sleep on the couch. This was roughly a week prior to these deaths and we only live about an hour from where these teens died.

In the past when I had taken my kids in for fever/sore throat, etc. the doctor just took culture for strep test and if it was negative they just sent us home saying it was a virus and to treat the symptoms. But, this time they also took a second culture for a flu test. The doctor said strep was negative, but that my daughter had a highly contagious type A flu.

She then wrote prescriptions for Tamiflu and Relenza. I had no intention of giving them to her due to what I read about Tamiflu. But, the kicker is that they told me only one pharmacy in town had Tamiflu-everyone else was out. Not even Wal-Mart had it. At first I thought the Gov't must be stockpiling it, but now I wonder if it was really being prescribed on a larger scale here locally. My understanding is that seasonal flu is resistant to Tamiflu, so why would they be prescribing it so at a rate that would deplete the other six or more pharmacies unless they knew about this new strain? (Other than to help big Pharma)

She recovered after a full 7 days, by the grace of God. I had been praying over her day and night that God heal her. Please continue to pray for comfort and emotional healing for these teens' families...I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child.

This is my first post after lurking for at least a year...any suggestions or criticisms regarding my post are welcome.