To protect the family's privacy, the child's hometown, county, age or sex are not being released. The child was high risk because of underlying medical conditions, officials stated.
"This is always a difficult announcement to make," State Health Director Dr. Jeffrey Engel said. "We hope that making people aware of this tragic case will remind others to be vigilant about protecting themselves and their children."
Engel stated the H1N1 accounts for more than 99 percent of all flu currently circulating in the state as well as the country.
He further said that most healthy children and adults who get the flu will recover without needing to see a doctor, but it's important that people contact their doctor right away if they are ill and at high risk for flu complications or have more severe flu symptoms.
Engel stressed that vaccination is the best way to prevent the flu and the seasonal flu vaccine is already available. He also urged everyone to watch for announcements by state and local health officials alerting them when the 2009 H1N1 vaccine becomes available.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced last week that manufacturers will produce three billion doses of the vaccine, down from the five billion they previously projected.
Locally, the state expects to get an initial shipment of between 500,000 and one million vaccine doses next month but care providers are asking most adults to wait a few weeks before getting the vaccine and let people in high risk groups be first in line.
Engel said people at high risk for H1N1 and seasonal flu complications are: children younger than five years old and particularly children younger than two years old, adults 65 years of age or older, pregnant women, people with the chronic diseases and youth that are younger than 19 who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy.
In a poll of 1,678 parents taken by the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Michigan, only 40 percent said they would get their children immunized against the H1N1 virus.
About 56 percent of the parents who said they would not get their children immunized against H1N1 said they were concerned about possible side effects from the vaccine.
According to WHO, because the pandemic virus is new, both non-clinical and clinical trials are being conducted to gain essential information on immune response and safety. Outcomes of trials completed to date suggest that pandemic vaccines are as safe as seasonal influenza vaccines.
They are also advising all countries administering the vaccine to conduct intensive monitoring for safety and to report adverse events.
“Flu shots help prevent people from becoming ill and from spreading flu to others,” Engel said. “This year they are even more important because of H1N1."
Kelli Warner of Raleigh, the mother of two youngsters, had plans to have their five-year-old vaccinated against both strains of the flu, but time was not on their side.
The child was diagnosed as having the flu on Friday, however, the type was not specified as tests were not done.
"The pediatrician told me they have seen so many cases with the same symptoms, that they were sure it's the flu," Warner stated, " and they did not see the need in testing him, but they did give him Tamiflu because he's in a high risk group."
Warner said parents were not notified of the flu virus that was spreading through children at the school her son attends.
"So far, his symptoms have been fairly mild, starting with a headache. He's been running a high fever and just doesn't feel well."
Health officials are urging people to be especially on guard for symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue and vomiting.
If you have these symptoms, stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others.
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