# 3568
One of the lessons of SARS was that health care personnel were among the most severely affected demographic groups. They had close, prolonged, and often intimate contact with infected patients, and many in very short order fell ill with the virus themselves.
Far too many died.
This novel H1N1 pandemic influenza is already showing signs of having a similar affect, with reports yesterday of a nurse from New Zealand dying from the virus, reports of perhaps a dozen HCWs in Argentina succumbing, and now a report today from California of a 37 year old nurse claimed by the illness.
While HCW deaths are to be expected in a pandemic, we have a responsibility as a society to extend the maximum amount of protection to those who voluntarily place themselves in harm’s way in order to care for others in a crisis.
Regardless of the circumstances of how this nurse contracted the virus (whether at work, or in the community), this is a somber reminder of the seriousness of the pandemic we face.
Hospitals need to take strong infection control and staff education steps now if they are to minimize tragedies such as this over the coming months.
Anything less and they may find that some HCWs will be unwilling to risk working in an unsafe environment.
A double hat tip for this report. First to Crof at Crofsblog and to @AIDigest on Twitter.
Swine flu fatal to local cancer nurse
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg
cpeytondahlberg@sacbee.comPublished: Friday, Jul. 31, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
A cancer nurse at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael has died of the H1N1 flu, becoming the first reported health care worker in California killed by the new variant of swine flu.
"We're very concerned that a nurse died," said Jill Furillo of the California Nurses Association, adding that the death underscores the need for strong infection controls to protect nurses and patients.
Mercy San Juan does not know whether the nurse caught the flu on the job or elsewhere, but it has notified all patients who came in contact with her when she might have been infectious, said hospital spokesman Bryan Gardner.
Karen Ann Hays died July 17 of a severe respiratory infection, pneumonia and H1N1, according to her death certificate. She also had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a staph infection that is resistant to many antibiotics.
