TACOMA, Wash. — A 5-year-old Tacoma girl who was sent home from school with a fever was dead a couple of days later from the flu.
The mother, Rebecca Taylor, says she treated her daughter Scarlet at home for two days last month for cold symptoms.
When the girl had breathing trouble, her mother took her to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. She died four hours later.
The girl did not have a flu shot. The medical examiner's office says she died of the H3N2 strain, the mutation for which the current vaccine is least effective.
State Health Department reports there have been 22 lab-confirmed flu deaths so far this season.
Spokesman Donn Moyer says the Pierce County girl was the first child in Washington this season to die of the flu.
Want to talk about the news of the day? Watch free streaming video on the KIRO 7 mobile app and iPad app, and join us here on Facebook.
Copyright The Associated Press
KIRO
