An eastern Iowa boy recently came down with a relatively rare strain of flu, drawing the attention of state and federal medical experts.
The unidentified Cedar County child was sickened by a strain of H3N2 influenza. The strain normally is associated with pigs, but investigators said the boy apparently caught it from another person.
“We found he had no exposure to livestock at all,” said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, medical director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. However, investigators didn’t find anyone else around the boy who had been sickened.
Health officials track such incidents closely because of the possibility that new strains of animal flu could mutate into versions that would be easily transmissible from person to person. If that happened, the new virus could cause a dangerous pandemic.
In this case, Quinlisk said, the child did not become seriously ill.
The Cedar County case was one of 308 H3N2 infections documented nationally this year. More than two-thirds of those cases were reported in Ohio and Indiana, after outbreaks associated with infected pigs that came into contact with people at fairs. Most people have suffered relatively mild illnesses. One death has been reported.
Last year, three children in Webster and Hamilton counties were sickened by the virus. One child apparently gave it to the two others, officials said at the time. No direct exposure to pigs was found.
Quinlisk on Friday asked public health officials to be on the lookout for other possible cases. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121201/NEWS/312010033/Eastern-Iowa-boy-sickened-by-rare-influenza-strain?News&nclick_check=1
