After more than 100 Island high schoolers called in sick on Wednesday — including 10 football players, 10 members of the boys’ soccer team and the cheerleading coach — Saturday’s football game and the season’s final two soccer matches were canceled, beginning a cascade of sports suspensions and other precautions as cases of suspected H1N1 flu spread quickly among Vineyard youths.
Because shipments of seasonal influenza vaccine will arrive on the Vineyard later than expected, the annual Islandwide innoculation will be postponed until the second week of November.
Seasonal flu innoculation is now scheduled to take place at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School on Nov. 11.
Vases wrapped with Xeroxed photographs of a muscled, smiling young man sat on the counter of Island Star convenience store in Edgartown yesterday, accepting contributions for the widow of Elton Barbosa, a 26-year-old Oak Bluffs resident who died on Friday of H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.
Mr. Barbosa had no known underlying health conditions, officials said. Most swine flu-related deaths have involved other health factors, such as an existing immune deficiency or other medical ailment.
A second case of swine flu has been confirmed on the Vineyard. There may have been many more; but we’ll probably not be advised of them.
The state guidelines for dealing with the pandemic now recognize the fact that for the great majority of people who catch it, swine flu is not a serious health problem. So public health officials have ceased daily county-by-county updates.
A woman in her early 40s was hospitalized for two nights last week with a confirmed case of H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital chief executive officer Timothy Walsh confirmed late yesterday.
This is the first confirmed incidence of the virus in Dukes County. The case means that every Massachusetts county has now had at least one confirmed case, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported yesterday.
As cases of swine flu (H1N1) virus multiplied elsewhere, Island towns were quick to issue guidance this week about taking precautions and being prepared should the virus spread. In Massachusetts, Department of Public Health officials confirmed two cases in Lowell.
