Sacramento County’s flu deaths rise to 14, county officials report
By Cynthia H. Craft
SacBee.com
Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014
Despite unseasonably mild weather, Sacramento County has logged another three deaths due to severe influenza, health officials said Wednesday, bringing the death toll so far to 14, just two shy of last year’s end-of-season count of 16.
With several more weeks remaining in the peak flu season, 74 people were hospitalized with life-threatening, flu-like symptoms in intensive care units throughout the area, county public health officials said, an increase of 10 people over the 64 reported hospitalized last Friday.
Of the deceased, seven were men and seven were women, county officials said. Some suffered from underlying medical conditions such as cancer and diabetes, which may have left them with weakened immune systems.
All those who died were between 18 and 64 years old, underscoring how the H1N1 flu virus prevalent this year is unusual in that it has not struck the very young or the very old, populations typically seen as most vulnerable to severe influenza.
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