He was not vaccinated against the flu. "They think that he died because he didn't get his flu shot," Pope said, referring to media reports. "That's not the case. The doctors and everyone says really, it doesn't have a huge bearing on it."
Pope said doctors told him a "Trojan horse" infection was responsible for Hunter's sudden decline on Sunday. The Boston Public Health Commission is awaiting test results that will reveal which strain of flu Hunter had, and any other infections.
An infectious diseases specialist not involved in Hunter's care said flu can pave the way for bacterial infections such as pneumonia, staph, or the increasingly common methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, also called MRSA.
Last year two of the four children in Massachusetts who died after contracting the flu were also infected with MRSA.
"The Trojan horse concept would be the virus goes in and then sort of opens up the door," said Dr. Kenneth McIntosh of Children's Hospital Boston. "It's not that all the warriors emerge from the influenza virus, but rather that so many get in and open the door, these potentially harmful bacteria can attack in ways they don't do without the virus."
