By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-863142.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Dallas County reports its fifth swine flu death, while Tarrant County confirms its first. KERA's BJ Austin reports.
Richardson school officials say the 16 year old girl who died over the weekend was a special education student at Berkner High School. Dallas County Medical Director Dr. John Carlo says the girl had serious underlying medical conditions that put her at risk. And he says swine flu, or H1N1 is widespread.
Carlo: We're seeing about a six to eight percent absentee rate across the county in terms of our school age children. So we know there's a lot of illness out there.
Tarrant County is confirming its first H1N1 death. 14 year old Chloe Lindsey died over the weekend. The Fort Worth middle school student did not have any underlying medical conditions. Her parents say doctors would not prescribe the symptom-relieving drug Tamiflu because Chloe did not meet the at risk criteria. Tamiflu is in short supply. Dallas County's Dr. John Carlo says Tamiflu is not called-for in many cases.
Carlo: 99% of individuals who come down with this flu will not need Tamiflu. They will recover and, in fact, the Tamiflu won't make any difference whatsoever. We're leaving it up to the medical community, leaving it up to the physicians, to decide who's at high risk and who can benefit from the anti-viral prescriptions.
Dr. Carlo advises anyone who develops a very high fever and has difficulty breathing to get to their doctor of Emergency Room immediately.