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Posted at: 10/22/2009 7:22 PM H1N1 Flu Kills Two in SE Minnesota(ABC 6 NEWS) -- The Minnesota Department of Health tells us the H1N1 virus has claimed the lives of two more children from southern Minnesota. One of them was from Freeborn County, another in Steele County. "My heart goes out to the family, it's got to be so hard anytime you lose a child, it's very difficult,” says Jeanie Opdahl. Freeborn County Red Cross director Jeanie Opdahl say even with all H1N1 training she has had, she is stilled shocked to hear that a child has died from H1N1 in Freeborn County. "How often does a child come home with the sniffles, or the cold, and some we just think we need to be a little bit more aware and on top of things. HINI does seem to be hitting children especially hard,” says Opdahl. And two of the three deaths announced today were children under the age of seven. The third victim was a woman in her sixties from Martin County. All three also had underlying health conditions, but other than that health officials aren't giving many details. "Unfortunately, we're not able to provide information that could serve to identify specific individuals,” says the Minnesota Department of Health. The Minnesota Department of Health says it is sympathetic to the families, but it wants people to know deaths from influenza are not rare. The MDH says there were seven to eight hundred deaths from influenza in Minnesota last year. "With H1N1, there’s so much interest, and it such a new thing were reporting on it, were reporting on almost every single death where if it was the seasonal flu, we would not be reporting on the death,” says a health official. Health officials say the virus has not gotten worse, but it seems to be affecting the pregnant and in this case those with previous health conditions and children the hardest.
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