The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Friday that it had seen 27 deaths from A/H1N1 flu virus in 10 states, but actual number of fatalities of the virus could be 32 if five more deaths in three more states are included in the list, according to local health officials.
In California, a nine-year-old girl named Karen Perez at elementary school in Contra Costa County has died from A/H1N1 flu, which is the third fatality connected to the new flu virus in the state.
"The death occurred on May 29 and a state laboratory confirmed test results Wednesday afternoon. The child also had a secondary bacterial infection," Contra Costa Health Services announced on Thursday in a press release.
Contra Costa Public Health Director Dr. Wendel Brunner said the county will not close schools, including the one the child attended, following the death case.
On Tuesday, California health officials reported the state's first two deaths from the new flu virus. Both victims were middle-aged people, a man from San Bernardino County and a woman from Los Angeles County, who had pre-existing medical conditions.
All the three deaths in the state of California were reported by the local officials, but have not been finally confirmed by the CDC on its website as of Friday.
In Wisconsin, state and local health officials on Thursday confirmed the first death of A/H1N1 flu virus in the state.
The victim was a Milwaukee resident who also had a medical condition that intensified the illness, said Seth Foldy, the state health officer, quoted by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday.
Again, this death in the state of Wisconsin has not been finally confirmed by the CDC, which did confirm on its website that Wisconsin currently tops all US states with 2,217 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu on Friday.
Same thing happened in Pennsylvania where local heath officials reported the first death from the newly-found virus in the state. The victim was 55-year-old Berks County woman who died with the virus and had significant underlying health issues, according to a health department spokeswoman on Thursday.
The family of the woman said she had been fighting a blood infection for about a year. On Monday, she was testing positive for the A/H1N1 flu virus. From there, she made small improvements but on Thursday her health failed very quickly.
As of Friday, this death has not yet put on the list on the website of the CDC. Officials said there is a time-gap between the local reports and CDC's publication on its website.
(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2009)
