Seven New Pediatric Deaths Reported During Last Week From H1N1 Swine Flu

While the CDC reports a continued decline in H1N1 Swine flu activity, it nevertheless reported seven new pediatric deaths in the United States from the H1N1 swine flu for the week of January 3-9, 2010. Since the first case of the H1N1 swine flu last spring, the CDC reports a total of 300 pediatric deaths thus far in the United States. The CDC cautions that this number is likely to be an under-reporting since it is based on only laboratory confirmed pediatric deaths from the H1N1 swine flu. For this reason, for total deaths the CDC provides only a range of estimates. As of December 12, 2009 (the latest date for which information is available), the CDC's estimate of the total deaths from the H1N1 swine flu in the United States ranged from a low of 7,880 deaths to 14,460 deaths. The good news is that reported cases of both H1N1 swine flu and the regular seasonal flu are decreasing, though both types of flu are expected to continue to infect individuals for the next couple of months.

Child Deaths and Hospitalizations from H1N1 Swine Flu Continues To Rise - Update as of Monday, Nov. 9, 2009

The vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths from the H1N1 swine flu continues to be children, with the total of each increasing with every week. This past week, there were 15 child deaths confirmed by lab results as being from the H1N1 swine flu and 3 additional child deaths that were problably from the H1N1 swine flu. Since just August 30, 2009 (i.e. since school has stated), there have been a total of 80 childhood deaths in the U.S. from the H1N1 swine flu virus. And since the flu pandemic first broke in April, there have been a total of 144 child deaths. On a local level, the news hits communities hard. As an example, a 9 year old died of the swine flu in Oklahoma City while a 23 month old child died of the swine flu in Oklahoma City. In Chattanoogoa, Tennessee, a child has recently died of the swine flu while 3 others are ill from the swine flu. Everyone, are heart-breaking stories of children dying from the H1N1 swine flu, even though normally the flu is a disease that does not affect the yung. Meanwhile, as one can see from the data, the number of hospitalizations and deaths of young children who have contracted the H1N1 swine flu continues to risk with every week. Also, 99 percent of all flu cases laboratory tested have been confirmed to be the H1N1 swine flu. Clearly, the United States if facing an unprecedented public health crisis where it is still too early to confirm just how deathly this current flu pandemic will turn out to be. As to it being a pandemic, there is no doubt, as infections from the H1N1 swine flu are widespread throughout the United States and the world. Of great concern continues to be the severe shortage of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. The CDC has originally projected to have 140 million does of the vaccine by mid-October (i.e for a population of 350 million). By the middle of October, however, the CDC had only delivered some 14 million does and as of the latest update, it has only shipped slightly over 26 million does. This leaves an insufficient supply of the vaccine -- even for those individuals at the highest risk and who thus should have been able to receive the vaccine by now. Some individuals are now wondering whether the opening of schools should have been delayed until there was a sufficient number of doses of the vaccine to vaccinate young school-age children, especially since they are experiencing the great deaths. This presents a moral deilemmia for many parents as to whether they should send their children to school when they know their school has experienced a number of H1N1 swine flu illnesses, and thus risk the life of their children. Meanwhile, protectors in New York and elsewere have protested the fact that Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs have been given supplies of the vaccine to give to their employees at times when local health departments report having no supplies and schools are reporting that they have yet to receive any vaccine to vaccine their children.

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 - Study Indicates For First Time Why And What People Die From H1N1 Swine Flu

A study of 1,088 people hospitalized from the H1N1 swine flu in California between August 11-23 indicates for the first time why and what people are dying from the H1N1 swine flu. In this regard, the study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicated that 11 percent, or 118 patients died. Nearly a third of the hospitalized patients had no underlying health conditions. What was surprising, however, was that 20 percent of all patients 50 years of age or older died from the H1N1 swine flu while only 2 percent of those patients 18 years or younger died of the H1N1 swine flu. This does not change the previously observed phenomenon that more younger people are contracting the H1N1 swine flu, indicating that potentially people 50 years or older have some limited immunity. But of those patients 50 years of age or older who have to be hospitalized from the H1N1 swine flu, for some reason they have by far the highest death rate. The study also indicated that 30 percent of all patients, or 340 patients, who were hospitalized had to be treated in intensive care. Despite the significantly higher death rates among elderly persons hospitalized from the H1N1 swine flu, the CDC has announced that it will continue to give priority to vaccinating young people because of their higher rate of contracting the virus.

63 Percent of U.S. Population Is Predicted to Become Infected With H1N1 Swine Flu

A recent study by Purdue University has predicted that 63 percent of the U.S. population will become infected with the H1N1 swine flu. Of this amount, 40 percent are predicted to become ill. This translates into an estimated 25 percent of the U.S. population who are predicted to become ill with the H1N1 swine flu. Already, the number of people sick with the H1N1 swine flu is greater than the normal peak for a typical flu season. This is despite that the normal peak for flu cases for a normal season is in January, and it is only October and we already have a greater number of H1N1 swine flu cases than during the peak of a typical flu season. This has caught health officials by surprise as they had not expected this many cases of the H1N1 swine flu this early in the flu season. Also of concern is the fact that there are currently available significantly less amounts of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine than had been expected to be available. As a result, some health officials are predicting that there could be as many as 90,000 deaths in the U.S. from the H1N1 swine flu. This contrasts with a normal flu season where there are typically 36,000 deaths in the U.S. from the flu. Also of concern is the fact that most deaths from the normal strain of flu are among the elderly. With the current epidemic of the H1N1 swine flu, however, the greatest number of hospitalizations and deaths have been among school-aged children and pregnant women. For this reason, the young, pregnant women and all other individuals at high risk for the H1N1 swine flu are urged to get vaccinated as soon as supplies of the vaccination become available. For some reason as yet to be understood, some regions of the country are being particularly hit hard with the H1N1 swine flu pandemic and are having to close schools because of the high rate of illness. Only a hundred miles away, however, another city might be only experiencing mild rates of illness. Also, some school systems and local health agencies have already vaccinated a large number of people while other school systems and local health agencies had not planned on ordering a significant amount of vaccinations this early in the flu season. As a consequence, the severity of the H1N1 swine flu is expected to continue to vary significantly from one area to another. Increasingly, however, more and more people know someone who has been sick with the swine flu - or have become sick themselves. As an example, AOL's reporter for the H1N1 swine flu recently reported that he and his children have all come down with the H1N1 swine flu while it is believed that his wife had been sick with the H1N1 swine flu. As another example, my mother who is a nurse as a co-worker who had a child that had to be hospitalized with what is believed to have been the H1N1 swine flu. One really begins to appreciate how many people are ill with the H1N1 swine flu when one goes to a hospital or one's doctor's office and one sees all the individuals there ill with the flu - and one is told first-hand stories of how many sick people the doctors and hospitals are currently treating with the H1N1 flu. Some doctors are reporting seeing as many as 40 or more patients a day ill with the flu.