Is flu to blame in 6 Salt Lake-area deaths?
Neither SLVHD or the Utah Department of Health would name the nursing facility, citing an ongoing communicable disease investigation and concerns over a federal patient privacy regulation. A GRAMA open-records request to each from the Deseret Morning News was denied.
Some 35 of 150 facility residents have gotten the flu since the outbreak began in the facility Feb. 11.
No death certificate or lab results have yet confirmed that the six residents died from influenza, said Dr. Dagmar Vitek, deputy director of SLVHD. "I'm not sure how to report it to you. It's not yet clear if all or none actually died because of flu."
Flu might also have provided a complication to an existing serious medical condition. Many of the residents in the nursing home are very frail, including a number who receive hospice services. That also impacts how many of them had flu shots, since residents and their families do not always choose to take steps like vaccines in the face of terminal illness, health experts said.
Staff who were ill — 22 out of 160, although perhaps not all had the flu — were excluded from work, said Vitek. And Tamiflu, an antiviral that reduces duration, symptom severity and complications of influenza, was prescribed for those with the flu.
"The facility was very proactive," Vitek said. "They closed their doors to new residents and visitors. They're doing handwashing, respiratory hygiene and everyone wears a mask. They canceled all gatherings and group activities, and all the residents eat in their rooms."
The communicable disease investigation will continue until Thursday. If no new flu cases are reported, life will return to normal for the residents and staff, Vitek said. That seven days covers the incubation period for influenza.
Vitek said that only recently did the department start tracking flu outbreaks specifically in nursing home facilities, so when confronted with the severe outbreak, they consulted Colorado health officials, who have done so for many years. "Their take is this is very normal because they are dealing with a very vulnerable population in a crowded environment, and a lot of these people are in hospice," she said.
Recent comments
Of course not! I think it's safe to put the blame squarely on...
Wuh | Feb. 20, 2008 at 12:49 p.m.
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cyndi | Feb. 20, 2008 at 12:39 p.m.
out of the 297 flu viruses the flu vaccine covers only three. They...
cyndi6653 | Feb. 20, 2008 at 11:33 a.m.
