Doctors at the San Fernando General Hospital are awaiting test results of swabs taken from a 16-year-old Couva teenager who died yesterday of suspected H1N1 influenza (swine flu).
Hospital medical director Dr Anand Chatoorgoon confirmed Shannon Nashaud, 16, of Couva, died around 3 am from pneumonia, which is one of the symptoms of the H1N1 influenza.
He was warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for the past four days and doctors had a high suspicion that he had contracted the virus. Swabs were sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) this week and results are expected in the coming days. “In all honestly, yes, we had a high index of suspicion that it could be but we are not sure. We are not sure because as a I mentioned, unless we get confirmation from the laboratory, we cannot say.
“When the pneumonia is that bad we do have a high index of suspicion and whether we get the report or not, we pull out all the stops and we treat aggressively as possible. “There is no doubt that from a clinical point of view, it was definitely a bad pneumonia. Pneumonia is really a bad infection of the lung, so, yes, he had an infection of the lung.
“Therefore, we pulled out all the stops because he was young but he did not make it,” Chatoorgoon said. Relatives declined to speak on the death yesterday. If the death is confirmed as H1N1 influenza-related, it would be the second of 2015 after Siparia mother Cherrie Ryce also succumbed to the virus on October 16.
South West Regional Health Authority CEO Anil Gosine said there were currently four suspicious cases of H1N1 influenza at the hospital and all were being tested. He said medical teams would go to each patients’ community to check for a possible spread of the disease. Asked if there were any other suspicious cases in any other regional health authorities, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said to check with medical staff at the hospitals.
Former health minister Dr Fuad Khan said he had not heard of any other regional health authorities with suspected cases. Commenting on Nashaud’s death, he said both young and the elderly were vulnerable to the virus.
However, he said he would be making no further comment on the H1N1 influenza as people have accused him of having a political tabanca and posing as the health minister.