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.

2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Update As Of November 2, 2009

The above map produced by the CDC shows that essentially all people with flu symptoms in the United States and Canada have tested positive for the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. This confirms what health officials have been saying - which is that the seasonal influenza has yet to emerge and that if you have flu symptoms you are almost certain to have the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. Meanwhile, Dr. Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), reported that there was a significant upsurge in child H1N1 swine flu deaths with many more likely to occur over the coming weeks and months. Just this last week alone, there were 114 child deaths of the H1N1 swine flu, the largest weekly total since the flu outbreak occured back in April. He indicated that clearly the H1N1 swine flu is become more virulent and widespread throughout the population, and especially among the young now that children have returned to school. Unfortunately, he also had to report that the last 234,000 doses of liquid Tamiflu have been released from the national stockpile. Tamiflu is an antiviral medicine which, if given at the first symptoms of the flu, can reduce its severity. Unfortunately, young children cannot take the capsule form of Tamiflu that adults can. Instead, young children must take the liquid form. Hence, the fact that the last supplies of liquid Tamiflu have had to be released from the national stockpile raises concerns as to how to treat young people who contract the H1N1 swine flu after the supply of Tamiflu runs out. Older children and adults can also take Relenza, a similar antiviral medicine. But children 7 years of younger or older children with asthma or other respiratory conditions cannot take Relenza. Totally, the World Health Organization now reports over 5,000 deaths from the H1N1 swine flu, with Iceland and Sudan just reporting there first deaths from the H1N1 swine flu. The vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths, however, have been in North America (i.e. the United States, Canada and Mexico). In North America, it has also been reported that otherwise health young adults and adults up to the age of 50 for some reason are also experiencing a high percentage of hospitalizations and deaths. This is contrary to earlier reports which had thought that only older children and adults with underlying health conditions had died. More comprehensive statistics, indicate, however, that many young adults and adults up to age 50 with no underlying health conditions are being hospitalized and dying. As an example, two young adults of 18 years old with no underlying health conditions died at the end of this past week in Maryland. In response to the large number of students absent with flu symptoms, the number of school closings across the country because of the swine flu continues to rise, with Grafton High School in Boston being the last school to close. A recent study of the Brookings Institution that such school closings because of the H1N1 swine flu could cost the country between $10 and $47 billion. Schools across the country are cancelling programs to award students at the end of the school year for perfect attendance records in an effort to shift priorties to encouraging students to remain home if they are ill. Similar programs to emphasize attendance less and to encourage sick employees to stay home are being undertake by hospitals and other business employers who can ill afford to have their work forces devastated with a large number of absences at once. Also, airlines are becoming more lenient on offering refunds or waiving re-booking fees for air travelers who feel they cannot make their flights because of flu-like symptoms.

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.