Article published October 10, 2009
Columbus boy, 14, is first Ohio child to die of swine flu
Eighth grader also had asthma, student says
By SPENCER HUNT
and MEREDITH HEAGNEY
COLUMBUS DISPATCH
COLUMBUS - A 14-year-old boy from Columbus is the first child in Ohio to die of swine flu, health officials said yesterday.
If area parents and children weren't worried about H1N1 before now, the death should drive home just how serious a threat this virus is, officials said.
Jon Fowler, an eighth grader at Holy Spirit School in Whitehall, died Thursday at Nationwide Children's Hospital. His is the second death in Columbus at-
tributed to the H1N1 virus.
The first was Kelsey Young, 20, who became ill while pregnant and died Sept. 3 after delivering a healthy baby a week earlier.
Jon had been hospitalized since Saturday, Franklin County Coroner Jan Gorniak said.
The flu is widespread in Columbus and the state. Doctors' offices, urgent-care centers, clinics, and emergency rooms are swamped with children and adults complaining of flulike symptoms. Schools have been hit particularly hard.Church members at Holy
Spirit Catholic Church, where Jon was an altar server, described him as talkative, outgoing, intelligent, and eager to do volunteer work.
Although health officials said they did not know whether the teen had other health conditions, a classmate said Jon had asthma.
The news prompted a renewed call by city and county health officials for everyone to get flu shots. Seasonal flu shots are available now in doctors' offices, clinics, and pharmacies.
The first doses of H1N1 vaccine were delivered to the city and county health departments yesterday.
"This tragedy reinforces that H1N1 is in our community and poses a risk to us all, especially children, pregnant women, and people with underlying health conditions," said Dr. Teresa C. Long, Columbus health commissioner.
The hospital announced this week that it is limiting visitors to immediate family members who are 12 or older. "We feel this is one way that perhaps we can help contain the virus and not have it come into the hospital in the form of visitors," said Pam Barber, a Children's spokesman.
Christy Murtha, 13, sat in front of Jon in class at Holy Spirit School. She said he carried an inhaler in his backpack, but she never saw him use it.
Christy said her teachers had each student wipe down their desks with disinfecting wipes.
Dr. Mysheika LeMaile-Williams, the city's medical director, said Columbus Public Health is working with school administrators to protect students.
Seasonal flu kills as many as 36,000 people a year. Though the disease typically is most dangerous among the very young and adults older than 60, those most susceptible to H1N1 seem to be children ages 5 or older, young adults, and pregnant women.
The median age of patients hospitalized with serious flu illnesses from May to June was 21, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Asthma was the most common underlying condition of the 272 surveyed patients, occurring in 28 percent of the cases.
Dr. Miller Sullivan, a Reynoldsburg pediatrician, said most flu-related deaths are caused by secondary infections.
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