Chicken Pox Kills Man; First State Fatality Since '78

SPOKANE

A Grand Coulee man's death from chicken pox is believed to be the first reported Washington state fatality from the disease in 12 years, state officials said yesterday.

Dana J. Klein, 31, died May 25 at Sacred Heart Medical Center after a short bout with the disease. The last reported fatality from chicken pox was in 1978, said Jane Ballard, an epidemiologist at the state Department of Health's communicable disease unit in Seattle.

``Chicken pox is a very, very common disease. Children have it all the time,'' said Dr. Peter Houck, a medical epidemiologist. ``Adults who get chicken pox tend to have a rougher time of it than children. But it is very uncommon to have someone die of it.''

About 100 chicken-pox deaths occur each year in the United States, Houck said. The risk of death is less than 2 per 100,000 cases in children, but that figure is multiplied by 15 in adults, he said.