5th H1N1 death confirmed in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The Indiana Health Department Commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe confirmed a fifth person has died from the H1N1 flu virus.

Mercedes Lewis, 11, from South Bend was taken to the hospital on Monday suffering from symptoms including a sore throat. Lewis died on Tuesday. She was a 6th grade student at Clay Intermediate Center.

Dr. Monroe said hospitalizations from H1N1 have increased 12% from last week.

While the vaccine is arriving in the state, Dr. Monroe said it’s a slow process.

“We just can't get the vaccine soon enough, in my estimation. I would have loved to have the vaccine several weeks ago and had enough for everybody. But the reality is this is a new virus. It takes time to get a safe vaccine produced, and ready. And the distribution, there's just a lot that goes into this, everyone's working very hard at all levels to get this out to the public as fast as we can,” said Dr. Monroe.

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