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April 29, 2009

Swine flu claims first U.S. victim

Officials confirm Notre Dame student is recovering from disease

LAURAN NEERGAARD

WASHINGTON — A 23-month-old toddler died in Texas from the swine flu virus as authorities in the United States and around the world struggled to contain a growing global health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations.

Officials on Tuesday also confirmed a University of Notre Dame student is Indiana’s first case of swine flu.

State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe said Tuesday, urging residents to take precautions but not panic as the new virus continued its spread.

Monroe said the infected Notre Dame student is “doing well” and suffered no serious complications from the swine flu virus. That student had not recently traveled to Mexico, where the new flu strain is suspected of causing more than 150 deaths, she said.

But state epidemiologists are investigating and hope to know within a few days how the young adult at the school in South Bend became infected with the virus, Monroe said.

“We don’t know if this individual perhaps had contact with someone who had recently traveled to Mexico — that’s the investigation that has to take place,” she said.

Officials declined to say whether the student at the South Bend campus is a man or woman, but Notre Dame said in a statement Tuesday that the student “has fully recovered and is in good health” after becoming ill last week.

In what has become standard operating procedure in this widening health crisis, Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, went from network to network Wednesday morning to give an update on what the Obama administration is doing. He said authorities essentially are still “trying to learn more about this strain of the flu.” His appearances as Germany reported its first cases of swine flu infection, with three victims.

“It’s very important that people take their concern and channel it into action,” Besser said, adding that “it is crucial that people understand what they need to do if symptoms appear.

“I don’t think it (the reported death in Texas) indicates any change in the strain,” he said. “We see with any flu virus a spectrum of disease symptoms.”

Sixty-six infections had been reported in the United States before the report of the toddler’s death in Texas.

The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn’t been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.

“We’re working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful,” Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration’s swine flu work, told The Associated Press.

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