Mar 08, 2012

Officials: Maryland family's flu tragedy was unusual

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY Updated 6m ago

A tragedy that played out in Maryland, where three members of one family died of influenza-related complications, is unusual, public health officials say.

Four members of the Blake family, in the town of Lusby, Md., had a serious lung infection that was a complication of seasonal flu, according to David Rogers, a health officer with the Calvert County Health Department.

According to the health department, Lou Ruth Blake, 81, developed "respiratory symptoms" around Feb. 23. A son and two daughters took care of her at home, and around Feb. 28, they also developed symptoms. Blake died at home on March 1. Her three children were hospitalized after that and two of them -- a son, 58, and a daughter, 56 -- passed away.

The lung infection, which is believed to be methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), was isolated and there are currently no other affected individuals, health officials say. "Local health care providers are not reporting any significant increase in patients with flu-like symptoms," they say.

This year's flu season has thus far been very mild, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. Only now, in what's a late start, are cases beginning to pick up around the country and they're still low compared with heavy flu years.

While it's in the nature of influenza to infect people who are in close contact, three fatalities among one family is rare, CDC officials say.

The family is believed to have had the H3N2 strain of flu, which has been circulating in the U.S. for more than two years and has been in the flu vaccine for the past two years. H3N2 can be particularly dangerous for the elderly.

However it wasn't the strain of the flu they had that killed them. What was deadly in this case, and what health officials always worry about, are co-infections. CDC officials believe that all three had MRSA. It's the type of staph bacteria that causes boils. But it can also get in the lungs or the blood stream and cause dangerous infections. People who have the flu can be more susceptible to these infections. "You're sick with the flu virus and that can make you more susceptible to an infection from this really nasty bacteria that can make you really sick pretty quickly," says CDC's Tom Skinner.

According to Skinner, Maryland is sending specimens from the autopsies on all three family members, which should arrive today, and CDC will be able to confirm exactly what happened "hopefully within a few days."

It is common for people who have so-called comorbidities such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, heart disease or infections, to get much sicker -- and even die -- from the flu than healthy individuals. CDC is aware that people who have antibiotic-resistant staph or MRSA are at higher risk as well.

A question and answer page on CDC's website says "the overall risk of developing an MRSA infection after influenza appears to be very low. However, CDC continues to work with state and local public health authorities to better understand this association."

What is unusual is that all three family members were infected with MRSA, which weakened their immune systems enough that they couldn't fight off the flu.

Officials: Maryland family's flu tragedy was unusual