First child in Washington dies of flu this year
Jan 12, 2015, 10:23 AM | Updated: 10:31 am
A 5-year-old Tacoma girl who was sent home from school with a fever was dead a couple of days later from the flu.
The mother, Rebecca Taylor, told KOMO she treated her daughter Scarlet at home for two days last month for cold symptoms.
When the girl had breathing trouble, her mother took her to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. She died four hours later.
The girl did not have a flu shot. The medical examiner’s office said she died of the H3N2 strain, the mutation for which the current vaccine is least effective.
“The one that is circulating the most out there this season so far has mutated somewhat and the vaccine is not a great match for it, but it’s better than no protection at all,” State Health Department spokesman Donn Moyer told KIRO Radio. “It does reduce the symptoms. It can make the symptoms less severe.”
There have been 22 flu deaths so far this season in Washington.
Moyer said the Pierce County girl was the first child in Washington this season to die of the flu.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
