Health officials don't plan to release any more daily death tallies of Utah's H1N1 swine flu victims -- but that won't necessarily mean people aren't continuing to die after testing positive for the novel flu strain.
It's up to the state's 12 local health departments to decide how they report flu deaths. So far, the fatalities have been announced as they are confirmed, with a total of eight -- six in the past week -- since the outbreak started more than a month ago.
But that is changing to just once-a-week announcements: A compilation of deaths and hospitalizations will be put out by the Utah Department of Health on Wednesdays.
The change comes on the heels of a decision to no longer report whether flu victims had underlying health problems that put them at greater risk for serious complications.
An unusual number of deaths may spur an earlier release, officials said. But state health department spokesman Tom Hudachko said a routine daily death report "dilutes" the public health message.
"What we don't want is for the public to start to tune us out, because once that happens we'll have a significant challenge to overcome in the event that things get worse," he said in an e-mail.
The Salt Lake Valley Health Department, which has logged the state's most deaths and hospitalizations, agrees.
"That's probably what we'll be doing," said Gary Edwards, executive director of the county health department.
"It's better to have a message that focuses on what the public health concerns are, not just the fatality as it occurs," he said. "We're having a hard time getting the message out ... [that] when people are ill they need to stay home."
He said he does not believe that limiting reports will lull people into complacency about the flu since so many people in the community are getting sick.
Utah is thought to have one of the nation's most active outbreaks, with emergency rooms filled with patients reporting flu-like symptoms and one hospital reporting that it admits one flu patient to the intensive care unit a day.
The state and the county health departments pledged to inform the public in the event something extreme happens, such as dozens of deaths over a short period of time.
"If there were a whole bunch of deaths over a weekend, of course we would probably release that information," said Salt Lake Valley Health Department spokeswoman Pam Davenport.
The H1N1 death toll in Utah
As of the last state health department report on Wednesday:
Deaths in Salt Lake County
21-year-old Marcos Antonio Sanchez died in May. He was overweight and had sleep apnea.
A child between the ages of 5 and 8 who had a "pretty severe underlying chronic condition" and respiratory problems, according to a health official, died in early June.
Doug Dunford, a 42-year-old from Cottonwood Heights with a liver condition, died June 12.
Francine Rushton, 47, died June 13.
A woman between the ages of 25 and 60 died in mid-June.
A man between the ages of 25 and 50 died June 13.
A woman between the ages of 25 and 50 died June 13.
Davis County
A man between the ages of 25 and 50 died June 13.
