First 3 flu deaths of season in LA County

By The Associated Press
January 13, 2011 at 8:17 p.m.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County has seen its first three deaths of the flu season, including a 4-year-old boy.

Health officials said in a statement Thursday that at least three people in the county have died from flu in the past two weeks, the first of the 2010-2011 flu season.

Along with the boy, the dead included a 29-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man.

The adults were both obese, a group which health officials say are now considered at increased risk for flu complications along with the very young, the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions.

They say all three died from a strain of flu that was preventable by vaccine, but it was not immediately known whether they had received shots.

An average flu season brings about 1,000 deaths in the county.

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