H1N1 deaths in state keep Craven ‘vigilant'

The deaths of three North Carolina patients who had a type of drug-resistant swine flu is a reminder to be “extra vigilant,” but probably will not change the way that Craven County responds to the H1N1 virus, Health Director Scott Harrelson said.

Those patients, and another one who is recovering, were all at Duke University Medical Center over a six-week period, according to The Associated Press. They all tested positive for a type of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu, one of the main medicines used to treat the virus. Their cases make up the largest cluster of drug-resistant swine flu in the U.S., the AP said.

None of those patients is from Craven County, Harrelson said.

“Deaths are reported to the home county, so we’d know if they were from here,” Harrelson said. “Some of our local physicians have been saying all along that we shouldn’t just give Tamiflu to anybody and everybody, because we don’t want to build up a resistance to it.”

Craven County became the center of the state’s work to control the spread of the virus back in May, when several Cherry Point Marines tested positive for H1N1. Called the “Craven County cluster,” those Eastern North Carolina Marines represented the largest concentration of swine flu patients in the state at the time. But being the first North Carolina county to have a concentration of the virus did not put Craven at the head of the line for H1N1 vaccinations.

“That’s done based on population,” Harrelson said. “We’re still focusing on (vaccinating) just the target populations, because we have so little of the vaccine that we haven’t been able to shift beyond the target groups and to the larger population.”

The target groups, defined by the Centers for Disease Control, include pregnant women, health care workers, and people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years old, among others.

He said the health department recently held an after-hours clinic aimed at the target groups and “every single chair was full.”

“Right now, our demand is outpacing our supply,” he said.

Harrelson said the hope is that the vaccination will be more widely available in December.

Nikie Mayo can be reached at 252-635-5665 or nmayo@freedomenc.com.