Now The Elderly and Obese Top H1N1 Risk Group
November 3, 2009 by Karlynn Johnston
Filed under Featured
Confused much? Me too. First we were being told that the young and young adults, such as myself in my early 30’s, and healthy children were at risk, age groups that never before have been labeled a flu risk. Now a study from California has now shown that from 1000 patients who were hospitalized with H1N1 between April 23 and Aug. 11, the patients who were 50 and older had a death rate of up to 20%, compared with about 2% for patients under 18 who were hospitalized.
This was a rather large study compared to most that have been published, only for the fact that we aren’t seeing 1000 H1N1 patients per hospital yet. As the numbers grow, we will start to see studies of larger groups of people, which will really start to show us the real statistics and risk catagories.
Another new turn of events is that there was a disproportionately high number of patients who were obese, and being obese is not a risk factor usually associated with the seasonal flu. The following quote might lend an explanation as to why this occurs:
Ali El Solh, an associate professor of medicine and social and preventive medicine at the State University of New York-Buffalo, speculates that obesity-related inflammation might further damage flu patients’ lungs. In Louie’s study, the most common causes of death were viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
So now I guess that my family isn’t in the high risk category anymore? At least until the wind changes and we see another study come out. I really think there has been far too much media hype and to be honest, media irresponsibility with this whole H1N1 ordeal.
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