H1N1 OUTBREAK
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Swine Flu Spreads to 'Virtually Entire Country'
H1N1 has claims 76 children since April
By Nick McMaster
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Posted Oct 9, 09 3:58 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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The swine flu is “widespread” in 37 states, the CDC says, and extended into 10 new states this week. And reports that areas where flu activity was relatively high last spring will be spared this winter are incorrect—in 50 such locations under study, "the vast majority of people are still susceptible," a CDC official reports. Nineteen more children died of H1N1 last week, bringing the pediatric death toll to 76 since April.
"In the last three flu seasons, the number of pediatric deaths has ranged from 47 to 88 per year. Now we have 76, and it is only October," the official told the Los Angeles Times, though she noted that only 20% to 30% of the children who died were healthy before contracting the virus.