A Chinese immigrant carried his daughter into Hesburgh Hospital’s Emergency Room in mid-January. She had some cognitive delays and severe scoliosis, and now she was suffering extreme respiratory difficulty. We diagnosed influenza with pneumonia as a complication. She went downhill very fast and sadly died in the ICU within two hours of coming to the ER.
Influenza is a concerning public health threat in the U.S., as you all know. It is generally a wintertime virus due, in part, to the concentration of people in warm, enclosed areas.
Because the southern hemisphere’s winter falls during the U.S.’s summertime…