The death of 17-year old Shannon Zwanziger from Minnesota last month highlights the severity of the flu epidemic that swirled across the United States during the final months of 2014, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Zwanziger's death adds to the death toll and statistics released by the CDC this week. The flu has now reached an epidemic level in the United States, CNN reported on Wednesday. According to the report, Zwanziger was a perfectly healthy teen and seldom gets sick. In fact, she had not been sick in more than three years. However, she suddenly came down with the flu and died a week later.
In an interview with CNN, Gwen Zwanziger, Shannon's mother described how her daughter's health deteriorated rapidly that led to her death. Before she died on December 9, her daughter had worked her way down the stairs via sliding and sitting in each step downwards.
Apparently, Shannon decided to take a bath. Gwen helped her to get into the bath tub but when she saw her eyes, she decided to take her daughter out of the tub but she passed away on her mother's arms.
Shannon was still alive but she never regained consciousness. Her mother conducted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and asked for help from her husband, Terry, who was the one who called 911. Medics came and brought Shannon to a hospital with a faint heartbeat. After being transferred to a larger hospital, her heart stopped beating.
The flu outbreak in the United States is blamed for the rising death rates of people dying from the illness. According to the latest statistics as of December 20, 15 children have died from the flu.
According to the report from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Shannon has been sick with flu-like symptoms for over a week. Also, relatives said that she had no other health issues. Still, health officials reiterate that flu is not fatal in teens unless they have other underlying diseases like congestive heart failure that can become complicated in the presence of a infection.
In Minnesota, three children have already died from the new mutated strain of the flu virus, health officials report to ABC News.
According to Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases doctor with the Mayo Clinic and a member of the Mayo vaccine research group, "The virus can enter the blood stream and then the brain, creating severe respiratory symptoms including shortness of breath and a very high fever," he told ABC. "If the body's reaction to the virus is too vigorous, this can cause as much damage as the virus itself."
The flu can be more complicated when it infects people who are more vulnerable to its complication like infants, children, frail and older adults, and those who are immunocompromised.
