SAN DIEGO -
A 5-year-old South Bay girl with no pre-existing
medical conditions became the 24th San Diego County resident to die of the H1N1
virus this year, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency
announced today.
The kindergartner at Howard Pence Elementary School in Otay Mesa died Saturday at Rady Children's Hospital, said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county public health officer. The school, the district, and parents of fellow students have been notified.
The girl, Alitza Ortiz-Sanchez, was sick for 48 hours before she went to the emergency room, where she died within an hour or two, said hospital officials.
"She was there, became much sicker, started to cry, passed out and her heart basically had stopped," said Dr. John Bradley who is head of infectious disease at Rady Children's Hospital.
Bradley said doctors tried to resuscitate the child who was taken to intensive care.
"The problem was her heart kept stopping," said Bradley. "She kept needing more and more rounds of medicine and eventually it became very clear that her heart just wasn't going to work."
Bradley said Ortiz-Sanchez was exposed to someone with a flu like illness before she got sick. Health officials say children and younger people are more likely to get the virus than older people. Dr. Wooten said the child was infected in the South Bay but that doesn't mean that area has more of the Swine Flu.
"This virus is widespread throughout the county," she said.
Wooten warned parents to keep their children home when sick and she warned employees not to go work if they are ill. She said the bottom line is that people needed to get a flu shot and they need to get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it's available.
The kindergartner at Howard Pence Elementary School in Otay Mesa died Saturday at Rady Children's Hospital, said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county public health officer. The school, the district, and parents of fellow students have been notified.
The girl, Alitza Ortiz-Sanchez, was sick for 48 hours before she went to the emergency room, where she died within an hour or two, said hospital officials.
"She was there, became much sicker, started to cry, passed out and her heart basically had stopped," said Dr. John Bradley who is head of infectious disease at Rady Children's Hospital.
Bradley said doctors tried to resuscitate the child who was taken to intensive care.
"The problem was her heart kept stopping," said Bradley. "She kept needing more and more rounds of medicine and eventually it became very clear that her heart just wasn't going to work."
Bradley said Ortiz-Sanchez was exposed to someone with a flu like illness before she got sick. Health officials say children and younger people are more likely to get the virus than older people. Dr. Wooten said the child was infected in the South Bay but that doesn't mean that area has more of the Swine Flu.
"This virus is widespread throughout the county," she said.
Wooten warned parents to keep their children home when sick and she warned employees not to go work if they are ill. She said the bottom line is that people needed to get a flu shot and they need to get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it's available.
