Three-Year-Old Is First Swine Flu Fatality

The toddler succumbed on Monday at Schneider Children’s Medical Center after contracting the H1N1 virus that causes the disease, officials said, but it wasn’t released for publication until Wednesday.

The child, from Petach Tikvah, had not received a vaccination this year.

In the past week, at least four people have been admitted to the hospital suffering from the same virus, all of them women. Two are listed in critical condition, Arutz Sheva said, quoting health officials.

The virus is passed from one person to another through respiratory droplets, with symptoms typically lasting four to six days.

The symptoms include a low-grade fever (100 F) that may rise, accompanied by a cough and/or sore throat. Those afflicted may also have a runny or stuffy nose, headaches and/or body aches, chills, fatigue, nausea, vomiting,  and diarrhea (most common in children).

More than half a million people worldwide were killed by the disease in the 2009 pandemic, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization.

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the January 18th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.