Virus

A 10th person in Maryland has died of swine flu, state health officials said Tuesday. The person, an adult from Western Maryland, had underlying health problems. As with other deaths related to the H1N1 virus, officials would not release further details. Since the outbreak of the virus in the spring, 217 people in Maryland have been hospitalized and two children have died, one of them a 14-year-old girl with no underlying health problems. Nationwide, 81 children have died of the swine flu, according to figures released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As Maryland's hospitals brace for the worst that the swine flu pandemic could offer, they are making big changes in the way they handle visitors - restricting children, limiting certain adult visitors and issuing face masks at entrances - in an effort to stem the virus' spread. In a recent poll by the Maryland Hospital Association, 15 of 39 hospitals' representatives said they had already put new policies into place. Almost all of the others said they are considering a policy change but hadn't finalized the details.

Tracey Haldeman is not taking any chances with her business being disrupted this flu season. So the president of Baltimore's Pinnacle Communications is providing an attractive incentive for her eight employees to get vaccinated for both the seasonal and H1N1 viruses: an hour of free personal training and a paid day off. "We're a small firm and all our staff is senior level," said Haldeman. "When we have one person out for an extended period of time, it could impact what we do for clients.

The death of a child is always devastating to loved ones who rejoiced in her youthful promise, and that of 14-year-old Destinee Parker, the Montebello Middle School student who died Tuesday from an infection of the H1N1 flu virus, was no exception. She was by all accounts a lively and gifted youngster, a talented member of a large and loving family, an animal lover and aspiring artist who hoped to attend the Baltimore School for the Arts next year. Her too-early death has left a gaping hole in the hearts of her grieving parents, relatives, classmates and teachers.

As many as 3 million Americans may now be immune to the West Nile virus thanks to antibodies they produced after being infected by the bite of an infected mosquito. And a tenth of 1 percent of the population - about 300,000 people - acquire new West Nile infections each year, most without ever experiencing any symptoms of the disease, according to a study in the current issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. "We do not see any indication that that trend will not continue," said Thomas R. Kriel, senior director of viral vaccines at Baxter International Inc., in Vienna, Austria.

Anticipating a potentially widespread outbreak of swine flu this fall and winter, state officials announced Monday that all of Maryland's hospitals will now be linked in a computerized system to better track the disease. The officials said Maryland is the first state to enlist all its hospitals in the surveillance program, which is also designed as an early warning system for a bio-terror attack. Forty-six hospitals will share data on patients admitted, diagnoses and treatments. Also, drugstores in the state will be reporting sales of flu and cold medications.

Every fall, we deal with new strains of seasonal flu. But this year, we'll also confront a potentially serious flu virus that first appeared last spring. While scientists won't know exactly how strong the 2009 H1N1 flu will be until the middle of the flu season, they're warning it could cause more illness as our kids return to school. We don't need to wait to act. In the fight against flu, preparation is more than half the battle - and we need everyone to chip in. We in the federal government have been aggressively responding to the new H1N1 since April.

Jennifer Debnam cringes every time she hears a television report or reads a newspaper article about the H1N1 flu pandemic and - inevitably - comes to the part where the disease is called "swine flu." Debnam raises 12,000 hogs a year on her family's Kent County farm and she, like others in the industry, is losing megabucks this year - which they attribute to the misperception that you can catch flu from eating pork chops or a plate of ribs. Exports (and prices) are down sharply as Russia and China have put major restrictions on American pork products after questioning the health of the nation's hog population, experts said.