By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A vaccine for swine flu should be available in Arkansas by this fall, health officials said Monday in the wake of the state’s first confirmed death from the H1N1 virus.
The state Department of Health confirmed the death reported Saturday by Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper. Health officials did not release details Monday, although Camper told media outlets over the weekend the victim was a woman.
State Epidemiologist Dr. James Phillips said Monday that H1N1 influenza A, is “all over the state.”
“We knew we might possibly see deaths from this disease,” Phillips said. “We lose Arkansans each year to the seasonal flu. It is so unfortunate that this has come to pass.”
Department of Health spokesman Ed Barham said the vaccine for swine flu is still being developed and is expected to be available in Arkansas by mid-October.
The vaccine will first be given to high-risk groups — the elderly, health care workers and children — before it is distributed to everyone, he said, adding that vaccine will be separate than the one for regular flu.
Despite the death, Barham said the department would continue its practice of not posting a running count of new cases of the flu. The department adopted the policy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which stopped updating its count of cases July 24.
Symptoms of the flu have been milder than first feared when the outbreak began in Mexico and the U.S. this spring, and have been similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu.
Symptoms include fever greater than 100 degrees, body aches, coughing, sore throat, chills, headache and body aches, fatigue, respiratory congestion, and in some cases, diarrhea and vomiting. Anyone experiencing such symptoms should contact their physician or health care provider.
Barham said the flu is contagious and easily spread through person-to-person through coughing or sneezing and by touching a hard surface with the virus on it and then touching the nose or mouth.
The Health Department recommends washing hands frequently, covering your cough and sneeze, and containing the germs by staying home if sick.
“There are many, many cases of the illness … we know that it’s flu season in the summer time and that’s unusual,” Barham said.
The Pulaski County coroner did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.
