Influenza Fears: An Early Warning From Colorado

By Paige Bowers; Rita Healy

Joseph Williams, a third-grader from Wellington, Colo., who loved fishing and bow hunting, went to school healthy on Friday, Nov. 21. Three days later, the 8-year-old son of Scott and Carrieann Williams died of respiratory failure at Poudre Valley Hospital in nearby Fort Collins. The cause of his sudden death: infection by the Type A strain of the influenza virus. Joseph is one of four Colorado children who have died in a flu outbreak that has hit the nation's Western states unusually hard and unusually early--raising concerns among some health officials that this flu season could be one of the worst in recent years.

It is, at any rate, the worst in Colorado since state officials began keeping count six years ago. Hospitals are packed, and school attendance has dropped 30% in some districts. With more hacking coughers passing through the metal detectors at Denver International Airport, security screeners are being careful to change their latex gloves frequently. Texas and Nevada have also seen a surge in cases.

Alarmed Colorado parents rushed to get their kids vaccinated last week--which is a good idea. This year's vaccine was not designed to neutralize a virulent version of the Type A virus--the Fujian strain--that has surfaced in the West. But Dr. Niranjan Bhat, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says it will still provide some protection from the substrain and is still recommended for those over 50. And it's not too late to get a shot.

--By Paige Bowers and Rita Healy