H1N1 claims its youngest N.B. victim
Posted Dec 30, 2009 07:37:29 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The death of a 27 year old Quispamsis man due to H1N1 brings to 8 the total of deaths in the province related to the H1N1 virus.
Michael Thomas Neill of Quispamsis died Monday at the Saint John Regional Hospital.
New Brunswick’s deputy chief medical health officer, Dr. Paul Van Buynder says,
“It isn’t a sign of a third wave of H1N1 breaking.”
Van Buynder confirms the man did have underlying medical conditions.
“He’s the first person to die with a drug-resistant form of the virus that has been seen occasionally around the world but has never previously been seen in New Brunswick itself,” he stated.
“We don’t believe that this is the commencement of a second or third wave of the pandemic virus. His illness started at the beginning of December, not recently.”
Neill’s mother Carolyn, in a Telegraph-Journal report urges anyone who hasn’t been immunized to get the vaccine. She says she wouldn’t want anybody to go through this, adding kids should be getting the shot.
Mass H1N1 immunization clinics stopped on December 18th, although shots are still available through the V-O-N and family doctors.
Meantime, the World Health Organization says although the worst of the H1N1 pandemic has passed in Canada, it isn’t over yet.
