Boston reports 2d death due to swine flu
The state Department of Public Health and the Boston Public Health Commission confirmed yesterday Boston’s second death related to swine flu.
An 84-year-old man died June 18 after being hospitalized for six days for flu symptoms. His test results came back yesterday, indicating that he was positive for H1N1 influenza, the scientific term for swine flu.
According to the Boston Public Health Commission, the man had several health conditions that placed him at high risk for the flu. But the commission said that neither his exact condition nor the hospital where he was treated could be released because of patient confidentiality.
According to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who suffer from asthma, diabetes, chronic lung disease, or heart disease, as well as pregnant women, can develop severe respiratory illness from exposure to H1N1.
“While we have seen recent evidence of flulike illness decreasing in Massachusetts, this tragic case underscores that we are still seeing person-to-person spread of the virus,’’ said John Auerbach, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
While the 84-year-old man did have underlying medical conditions that could have worsened symptoms of swine flu, he was much older than the typical H1N1 patients who have been hospitalized and those who have died from the illness nationally.
Officials said there have been 474 confirmed cases of the swine flu in Boston and 1,287 statewide by June 26. Of the Massachusetts cases, 72 percent were in patients 25 years old or younger, with the median age of those hospitalized being 14.
According to the CDC, the median age of hospitalized US patients was 19, while the median age of the 127 swine-flu-related deaths was 37.
Boston’s first confirmed H1N1-related death was a 30-year-old woman who tested positive for the virus after dying June 16. While she was a typical age for a swine flu hospitalization, she did not have any of the underlying medical conditions that public health officials say accompany many H1N1 deaths.
On Friday, Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC, announced that 27,717 US cases have been reported. She added that the CDC believes that there may be closer to 1 million new US cases of swine flu this year.
Tara Ballenger can be reached at tballenger@globe.com. 