A two-month-old baby boy in Ontario has died from symptoms of the H1N1 virus.
Graham Pollett, the region's medical officer of health, said Wednesday night that it is likely that the infant had H1N1 because it is the only virus circulating in London. Confirmation would make him the resurgent pandemic's youngest victim in the province.
The infant's parents rushed him to the emergency department of a hospital in the Southwestern Ontario community at 3 a.m. on Monday, and he was pronounced dead on arrival, Dr. Pollett said.
The infant was healthy before coming down with Influenza A, Dr. Pollett said in an interview last night. The tests are under way to determine the exact strain of the virus.
The baby's death is a tragic reminder that people can die from the virus, and that the very young are most at risk, he said. This was the province's first recorded death of a baby under the age of one year from what appears to the H1N1 virus.
"We knew we were going to be hit with deaths, but that does not make it any easier," Dr. Pollett said.
Two other residents of the city also died this week from symptoms of the H1N1 virus. A man and a woman, both in their 70s, had multiple underlying medical conditions, the Middlesex-London Health Unit said in a statement.
Until this week, London had been spared any casualties as the H1N1 virus spreads rapidly across the country. In Ontario alone, 37 people have died since the first wave of the virus last April.
Dr. Pollett said he does not know when the infant became sick with influenza, but he had not been in hospital. His name has not been released.
Karen Howlett