Feb 10, 2017 3 min read

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A third-grade student at Trinity South Elementary School has died after contracting the flu, according to relatives and a family friend.

Payton Pierson, 10, died Thursday at UPMC-Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh after being taken off life support, said David and Carissa Worobec, the child’s great-grandfather and aunt. Her parents are James Edward Morris and Ashley Pierson of Washington.

Family friend Michelle Markley said Payton was diagnosed with the flu last Saturday at Washington Hospital and returned to her Washington area home. Twelve hours later, around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Markley said the girl collapsed at home. She was transported to Washington Hospital before being transferred to Children’s via medical helicopter.

People in the community have lent their support, setting up a GoFundMe page and a fundraiser. “Prayers for Payton,” the GoFundMe page, had raised $2,484 toward a goal of $5,000, as of Friday afternoon. A chicken dinner fundraiser is scheduled for 2 to 6 p.m. next Friday at Cheese’s House of Barbeque, 1081 E. Maiden St., Washington.

Trinity Area School District sent an email to families Friday, alerting them that a Trinity South third-grader had died and grief counselors had been brought into the school. The district did not identify the student. Trinity officials did not return telephone calls from the Observer-Reporter seeking additional information.

The region is in the midst of flu season, which begins Oct. 1 and can stretch into April.

Kathy Liberatore, infection, prevention and control manager at Monongahela Valley Hospital, said the Union Township facility had treated 279 cases of Influenza A and Influenza B as of Friday afternoon. (Two of those victims died.) That includes 10 cases thus far in February.

This season’s total already is well above the 155 seen during the 2015-16 season.

And of those 279 flu victims this fall and winter, 90 have been treated as in-patients at the hospital. Many of those 90, Liberatore added, have chronic lung disease, heart disease or diabetes “that have already compromised their systems.”

Liberatore said the incidence of flu at her hospital has varied wildly in recent seasons, from 465 in 2014-15 to only five three years earlier. There were 213 cases at Mon Valley in 2013-14, including five deaths.

Liberatore said the lofty figures for the current season may be partly attributable to better testing methods and “people using our services.” But, she added, “this year, (flu is) touching just about every family in the Valley. We are definitely seeing more cases.”

Others who have been treated for respiratory distress have a condition that mimics the flu. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is common and highly contagious, and usually associated with young children. A negative flu test usually means RSV.

“With RSV, you have body aches, cough and a fever,” Liberatore said. “A cough can last a month. A sore throat is more (likely) the flu.

“There’s no vaccine for RSV. It’s not preventable, and you can only treat the symptoms to get over the virus.”

She discounts the perception that RSV affects only young people.

“It’s not just a children’s virus. It’s an every person virus. Infants to elderly people are getting this.”

Flu, on the contrary, is preventable. Still preventable.

“It’s still not too late to get an injection,” Liberatore said. “Prevention is the big thing.”