4-year-old boy dies from new flu

Thursday 15th October, 06:29 AM JST

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InTheKnow at 07:45 AM JST - 15th October

the seasonal flu kills more than 25,000 every year in America alone. No headlines/panic about that. Now I'm waiting for the tsunami of "H1N1- resistant masks" to be flying off the shelves soon at 700-1000 en each.
mansen at 07:55 AM JST - 15th October

i thought ur not supposed to take tamiflu when u have a fever..??
lunchmeat at 08:38 AM JST - 15th October

Sounds like they're trying to hang it on the flu when it may have been the treatment.

The CDC no longer publishes specific data on swine-flu cases or deaths. But the FluTracker Web site does. As of last Friday, it listed 1,924 total US deaths compared to 680. That will prove to be a statistical artifact, with recorded numbers catching up to actual deaths.(There were just 36 deaths reported the previous week.) But it’s still well below the number the CDC estimates die weekly each year from "regular" flu during the season.

FluTracker also provides a graph that shows new worldwide cases and deaths — and that tells us deaths are no more frequent than they were a month ago.
sicklittlemonkey at 09:29 AM JST - 15th October

You people sound like crazy conspiracy theorists. This is why we should be concerned:

"Seasonal influenza exacts its heaviest toll on the elderly and those with severe medical conditions.

By contrast, critical illness due to swine flu was commonest in infants and middle-aged people, said the leader of the Australia-New Zealand study, Clinical Associate Professor Steve Webb, of Royal Perth Hospital."
kirakira25 at 09:39 AM JST - 15th October

This is tragic, but again, not at all unusual or unexpected in a flu pandemic. There will always be odd cases that either dont respond to treatment, have an adverse reaction to the treatment, or are just destined to "take over" the bodys defences.

Can I just reiterate to prevent panic that whilst 40 degrees IS a high temperature and needs to be bropught down for comfort as much as anything it is NOT a brain-frying temperature.

Some people, children in particular, have a reaction to Tamiflu. My 5 year old did. Fortunately it was just severe vomiting (within 30 minutes of taking the drug) so she was switched onto Relenza and was fine on that. It sounds very much like this boy could have had a reaction to tamiflu, but it sounds even more to me like the media are seizing the opportunity to now scaremonger about taking anti-virals full stop.
smithinjapan at 09:54 AM JST - 15th October

Giving a child Tamiflu and extremely powerful drugs of the like could well be what killed this young boy. It seems like that, anyway, from the reaction the boy had. I'm sure a few years down the road we'll all be hearing about how they've learned these drugs are more harmful than good.

It's extremely sad that this young boy died, and my condolences to the family. Is this unlike any other flu, though? Don't children die world-wide in scores from influenza?

Poor kid.
bobbafett at 11:54 AM JST - 15th October

Giving a child Tamiflu and extremely powerful drugs of the like could well be what killed this young boy

I agree with Kira and Smith. New flu did not kill this boy and neither did a 40 degree temperature. 40 degrees is nothing for kids, the body is heating up to kill the virus. Around 42 is when is gets "brain fever" dangerous. A reaction to Tami-flu most likely killed the kid.
sf2k at 12:51 PM JST - 15th October

and later found he was infected with the new flu

This whole article is confusing. Try again?

I'm not following how you get a brain infection for a respiratory illness. As well why did the doctors find out he had the h1n1 flu afterwards and not before? Why was Tamiflu applied if he wasn't originally diagnosed with it?
TSRnow at 01:27 PM JST - 15th October

I don't understand. What is wrong with sending out news like this? Would you people rather have no news at all? It’s not as if they’re reporting each and every death in detail. He was, in fact the youngest so far in Japan, right?

With news like this people may be more careful, and media could act up a bit more to get the government to move those vaccines the people in Japan are waiting for.

One more thing caught my attention. If 25,000 people are dying every year of normal flu in the US, like InTheKnow says, I think they should try to make it a headline once in a while. It’s not something you want to get used to. It's like 4 times the figure of Japanese traffic accidents, which makes the headlines too often.
jinjapan at 01:58 PM JST - 15th October

actually, the number is closer to 40,000 deaths annually in the u.s.a. from influenza & around 400,000 worldwide on a yearly basis .
Osakadaz at 05:56 PM JST - 15th October

my 5 year old niece got swine flu and was pretty sick.Tamiflu brought her back to better health in a matter of a day.
stirfry at 06:26 PM JST - 15th October

seasonal flu kills 500000 worldwide every year...half a million
proxy at 11:51 PM JST - 15th October

TSRnow. I don't think the government is in any rush to roll out those vaccines. I have seen government health experts on TV saying they are not sure of the vaccine safety but it may be better than mass death. Since the novel flu is now peeking and there or so few deaths the pressure is off for a quick roll out of the vaccine that even the government thinks may not be safe. It may indeed be perfectly safe but they really do not want to release drugs that have not been properly tested.

If you are concerned, I will not dismiss your concerns as baseless. The first things you should do to avoid getting sick are eating well, exercise, get about 20 min of sun a day depending on your skin tone and get a rock solid good nights sleep every night.
roomtemperature at 05:46 AM JST - 16th October

"seasonal flu kills 500000 worldwide every year...half a million"

That's nice information you got there, Stirfry. Too bad this is not about seasonal flu. Anyway....nice try.
TSRnow at 11:16 AM JST - 16th October

proxy, when it comes to vaccines being side-effect proof, I'm reluctant as the government in taking them. However, this time it's not about safety and approval, but about details and making flow charts. (Who should get it first, how to distribute etc....) The US has already started giving the vaccines whereas Japan just finished asking hospitals how much they need.

I'm not saying these vaccines are going to produce miracles, but if it's an option, I think the people want it. Especially the parents of these poor kids.