ONly Healthy kids died from Swine Flu

What other reason apart from the non-administration of Tamilflu as
insisted by Manufacturers.

Those with underlying diseases, were given Tamilfu immediately and all
of them survived.

The healthy ones had to wait for more than 48 hours before Tamilflu is
given, for their severity to be confirmed but it is too late. By this
time it is too late already. It is just a waste of Tamiflu and creates
more problems by increasing the incidence of Tamilflu-resistant virus.

This is all due to WHO directive who does NOT ALLOW the administration
of Tamilflu for the healthy ones, immediately.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_healthy-kids-succumbed-to-swine-flu-death-audit_1304009

Healthy kids succumbed to swine flu: Death audit

Sumitra Deb Roy / DNAWednesday, October 28, 2009 2:55 IST
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Mumbai: More healthy children in the state have succumbed to swine
flu, or influenza A (H1N1), than to underlying ailments, including
HIV.

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Complete Coverage
The swine flu pandemic
A death audit of H1N1 patients in Pune's Sassoon General Hospital
(which treated the maximum number of swine flu cases in Maharashtra)
has proved wrong the theory that better immunity in children could
shield against swine flu. The trend, however, is the reverse for
adults.

The audit, conducted on October 23, showed that all eight children who
had succumbed to the virus at Sassoon were healthy, not immuno-
compromised, a government official said. "On the other hand, we had
children with HIV/Aids suffering from malaria, dengue and even cardiac
ailments. They were cured after being administered Tamiflu," he said.
Sassoon had checked 317 children for H1N1, with 52 testing positive.

"The state will look into the reasons why so many children tested
negative when the virus was in the air," he said.

"Experts think since healthy children fought the virus with more
virulence, their immune system could have collapsed faster," added the
official.

Dr Arun Jamkar, dean, BJ Medical College, Pune, said: "Of the 44
children discharged after successful treatment, at least 10 were
suffering from underlying ailments, but still fought the swine flu
virus." The findings will be studied further, he said.

Dr Pravin Shingare, joint director, Directorate of Medical Education
and Research, said that the findings have taken health experts by
surprise. "About 80% of adults who succumbed to H1N1 were suffering
from co-morbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart problems
and HIV/Aids."

Maharashtra has been worst hit by swine flu, with about 180 people
losing their lives. In Mumbai, 29 people died, among them 8 children.
The city is yet to undertake a Sassoon-like study.

The state government will share the Sassoon findings with global
agencies through video conference on Wednesday. Among the participants
will be top bureaucrats, health officers from state hospitals, the
Union ministry of health, the Atlanta-based Centres for Disease
Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation.

Good advice on Vaccination

If you can afford vaccination, you should be vaccinated. Your life is
more valuable than all of your possessions.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/misinformation+contagious+potentially+deadly/2152838/story.html

Flu misinformation is contagious - and potentially deadly

Why do people who would never use Google to decide that they knew more
than their lawyer or architect decide that they know better than their
physicians?

BY CATHERINE D'AMICO, FREELANCEOCTOBER 28, 2009

I am a family physician and I am going to get my H1N1 flu shot and so
are my children. I hope that my fellow Canadians will too.

Based on what occurred in the Southern Hemisphere during their winter
this year, it is expected that about 80 per cent or more of the
influenza virus circulating this year will be H1N1 and about 20 per
cent seasonal flu.

There is a lot of misinformation being passed from person to person
about the flu vaccine. And unfortunately many are simply accepting
what they hear as fact.

Why do people who would never use Google, or the opinions of friends
and colleagues, to decide that they knew more than their lawyer,
engineer, or architect, decide that they know better than their
physicians? Or the PhDs in immunology and microbiology and public
health staff who research these issues for months or years, and have
the scientific background to be able to evaluate the research and
safety data?

How could all the scientists, physicians, and governments in every
province and country who are all looking at the data and recommending
vaccination be wrong?

Here are the facts: The seasonal flu vaccine and H1N1 vaccine are
called subunit vaccines which do not introduce live or whole flu virus
into the body. The flu vaccine delivers a minute quantity of a
sterilized, purified portion of the influenza virus into the body. The
immune system is then stimulated to respond and in about two weeks
this results in immunity.

When someone gets the actual flu, they have had whole live influenza
virus enter their body through their nose or mouth. The influenza
virus attaches to the nasopharynx cells, then enters and reproduces
within them. Millions and millions of live viruses are then released,
teeming throughout the person's body and bloodstream. This is an
overwhelming attack and as the battle ensues and the immune system
fights, the temperature rises, the body fatigues, and the symptoms of
influenza result.

Most cases of H1N1 have been mild, but as we have seen, for some, and
sometimes randomly, the battle is severe and death results.

Why would you choose for yourself, or much more importantly for your
child, to come into contact with the live virus, and submit to
millions and millions of live, replicating viruses circulating for
days and days? Does it not make more sense to instead get a vaccine
that injects a sterilized and killed tiny portion of that same virus?
I have chosen this option for my children and for myself (including
during my pregnancies) for over a decade and have no regrets.

The problem with subunit vaccines is that since they contain only a
part of the virus, they often cannot stimulate a complete immune
response, especially in those with weak immune systems such as young
children, the elderly, or those with chronic diseases. For that
reason, scientists add adjuvants to vaccines. Adjuvants are immune-
system stimulators that enhance the response to the vaccine.

The H1N1 vaccine contains an oil-in-water adjuvant called squalene.
Squalene is a naturally occurring sterilized oil. Oil-in-water
adjuvants have been studied and approved as safe and are used in
various European vaccines including their flu shots.

Something that really puzzles me is how quickly people will put into
their own and their children's bodies anything labelled as an immune
stimulant if it is sold in a natural-products store. These products do
not have long-term safety data, are much less rigorously tested for
safety than vaccines and adjuvants, and claims are often supported by
very poor quality studies that were done by the very companies selling
the product.

There is a question I am frequently asked: If the nurses, paramedics,
and hospital workers are not getting vaccinated, doesn't that suggest
that I should be concerned about getting vaccinated?

It is interesting that the rate of vaccination among health-care
workers is similar to the rate in the general population. The reason
for this seems to be that health-care workers obtain their information
about the vaccine and influenza the same way as the general public.
They Google, read newspapers, and talk among themselves. There are no
requirements for health-care workers to participate in any educational
programs related to vaccines or influenza.

To protect those at high risk from influenza, whom the vaccine does
not protect well because of their weak immune response, it is
important that their caregivers be vaccinated so that they do not
infect them. It is particularly worrying that health-care workers
could infect or kill our most vulnerable by choosing not to be
vaccinated. Research indicates that H1N1 is infectious one day before
symptoms, and up to seven to 10 days afterwards.

H1N1 is now present in our communities and will be spreading quickly.
It's time for all of us to come together and protect ourselves and our
families, and help to protect the vulnerable in our community. One way
to do that is to get vaccinated. The vaccine takes two weeks to
stimulate immunity, so it's important to be vaccinated as soon as
possible. That's what my family is planning to do.

Catherine D'Amico is a family doctor in Ottawa.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Very few flu deaths because it has always been this way

For the first time, we monitor deaths due to flu and find that very
few actually die from common flu. Statistics on flu in the past had
always been estimates and models that are now proven to be completely
wrong.

The only way this phenomena can be explained is that those who catch
swine flu is also immune to common flu. That makes a mockery of the
practise of taking vaccines for 3 varieties of flu if getting swine
flu which is H1N1 will also protect all varieties of flu as well.

It is better to check your ESTMATES and never pretend that ESTIMATES
are facts.

"To keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to
safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of
them imaginary."
Obama Administration's Flu Fearmongering

Michael Fumento Bio
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By Michael Fumento Wednesday, October 28, 2009
"In keeping with the administration's proactive approach" to swine
flu, the White House has announced, President Obama on Saturday
declared the disease "a national emergency." It's the second such
declaration, with the first in late April. And in case you didn't know
what "proactive" meant before, now you do: "hysterical."

Just nine weeks ago the President's Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology issued its report with a "plausible scenario" of 30,000 to
90,000 deaths peaking in "mid-October." It's now late October and past
time for a reality check.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer
releases specific swine flu case or death numbers, so the agency
merely said Friday it had killed more than 1,000 Americans and
hospitalized over 20,000 in the almost 7 months since the outbreak
began. The website flucount.org, basing its figures on media reports,
lists about 1,100. The FluTracker website counts a much higher 2,800.

But even that largest figure is about the number of Americans the CDC
estimates seasonal flu kills every 10 days during the season,
specifically 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations annually.

Yes, swine flu disproportionately afflicts the young. But it's simply
a larger slice of much smaller pie. Hence among 47,000 college
students afflicted seriously enough with CDC-defined "flu-like
illness" to seek medical help, according to an American College Health
Association running survey, there have been only78 hospitalizations
and zero deaths.

Nor is there reason to think things will worsen.

In Australia and New Zealand, flu season has ended and almost all
cases were swine flu. Yet even without a vaccine, those countries have
reported significantly fewer flu deaths than normal.

Worldwide in seven months swine flu has claimed almost 5,000 people
according to the World Health Organization, at the low end of the
range the agency estimates die from seasonal flu every seven days.

Further, the virus isn't mutating into a worse form; it appears the
outbreak may already have crested in some states; and in fact a Purdue
University study in the journal Eurosurveillance calculates the
national epidemic should peak this week.

So where's the fire, Mr. President?

Well, in fairness there's plenty of smoke.

But it's not the virus itself driving these masses; it's flu frenzy
The CDC reports that the percentage of visits to emergency rooms and
outpatient clinics by people worried they have the flu—and worried
enough to seek medical attention—is incredibly high: over 7 percent.
That's double from just six weeks ago and the highest since 2003. In
Region Six, encompassing Texas and nearby states, it's almost 10
percent.

Some swamped emergency facilities have erected tents to accommodate
the overflow, while patients at others wait up to 24 hours for a bed.

But it's not the virus itself driving these masses; it's flu frenzy.
The CDC reports that only 37 percent of samples from its laboratory
surveillance system are testing positive. That means only about a
third of the samples that even doctors (much less scared patients)
suspect may show swine flu actually do so. In the especially panicky
region Region Six, merely a fifth indicate swine flu—the lowest level
in months.

Moreover, many of those emergency visitors may actually have flu but
with symptoms so mild that in previous years they'd have stayed home
and self-treated.

But panic is what this pandemic is all about it. It's driven by a
perpetual motion machine of journalists writing about scared people,
thereby creating more scared people to write about. And clearly the
Obama Administration stoked it with that first health emergency
declaration and with the President's Council report.

It's not just that the panic was predictable; it was predicted. The
"only realistic aspect of President's Council scenario, I wrote in
another newspaper in early September, "is that emergency facilities
could be swamped. But rather than with truly sick people, it will be
with the mildly ill and the worried well." Ironically, this new
emergency declaration can only help bring porcine flu panic to greater
heights.

Why issue it, then? Maybe because government, H.L Mencken has
observed, ever seeks "to keep the populace alarmed (and hence
clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

Perhaps the Obama administration doesn't deserve such cynicism in this
matter. Perhaps. But if it reacts so poorly to a non-crisis, what can
we expect when it's faced with a real one?

Michael Fumento is director of the non-profit Independent Journalism
Project where he specializes in health and science issues. He can be
reached at Fumento@pobox.com.

US declares Swine Flu Emergency

It the the chinese news agency that is more informative. It appears
that US news agencies are trying to downplay this emergency for fear
of disrupting the economy.

The chinese, on the other hand, had been on emergencies all these
while, ever since the first Swine Flu was detected. As a result it has
suffered much less than US that had taken the easy way out.

And yet, even after an emergency had been declared, there is no panic
at all in USA. In fact, people have become relieved. At least it
allows hospitals to prepare. Just people are preparing, does not mean
that they are panicking. Honesty has always been the best policy. It
allows people to take special precautions effectively.

If you hide information, people will take excessive precautions, since
there is no information at all. Those who don't want to take chances,
will assume all the worst possibilities.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD9BHSMPG0

AP Top News at 11:52 p.m. EDT
(AP) – 10 hours ago
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a
national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals
move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect
noninfected patients. The declaration, signed Friday night and
announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in
the country and production delays undercutting the government's
initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the
vaccine could be available by mid-October.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://english.cctv.com/program/newshour/20091025/102000.shtml

Shortage of vaccine causes discontent in US
2009-10-25 13:36 BJT
Special Report: World tackles A/H1N1 flu |
Mail　|　 Share 　| Print　|　Text: A A A
Watch Video

Play Video
US President Barack Obama has declared the A/H1N1 flu outbreak a
national emergency. It comes amid production delays for the flu's
vaccine.
Some Americans are not alarmed by the national emergency, but many
seem dissatisfied with the shortage of vaccine.
Several high schools in Washington specially designated for
inoculations began providing A/H1N1 flu vaccinations Saturday.
In the early morning, a long line forms.
Washington Resident, said, "I come early in case there's no vaccine."
Though the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention vows to supply
enough vaccine for those who plan to get inoculated, many states in
the country face shortages.
Washington Resident, said, "Terrible, it takes much long time to
make."
The CDC admits the production of the vaccine is taking longer than
expected.
As planned, as many as 40 million doses could be available by mid-
October. Currently, only 13 million doses have been supplied.
The CDC cut down its target of producing 200 million doses by the end
of November to less than 70 million.
No panic, however, is caused by the government declaring a national
emergency and the shortage of vaccine.
Shelley Cohel, Washington Resident, said, "I believe there will be
enough vaccine"
Even if the vaccine is not available, many say keeping healthy, and
following doctors' orders will be helpful.
Editor: Zhang Pengfei | Source: CCTV.com

Tamilflu taker that died

A healthy person died despite being 33 and taking Tamilflu. The only
explanation is that either he took Tamilflu too late, or have one of
those underlying diseases that made him more vulnerable. What these
diseases are, are still unknown because only a little asthma can kill
and most of us have a little bit of asthma that we are not aware of.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/091024_mother_of_h1n1_victim_speaks_out

Mother of H1N1 Victim Speaks Out
Updated: Saturday, 24 Oct 2009, 9:39 PM CDT
Published : Saturday, 24 Oct 2009, 9:39 PM CDT

CHRIS
STIPES
HOUSTON - Sandi Lee-Gray describes her 33-year-old son John Michael
Lee as a "good man, a community man, selfless man, humble man." He is
also a man, who like possibly millions of others, came down with the
swine flu. "John never really did take this serious," said Lee-Gray.
What started with a cough and runny nose on October 7th ended just ten
days later with the financial adviser's death. "I don't get it. I just
don't get why. That day is like a nightmare," said Lee-Gray.

Lee-Gray says her son's doctor gave him Tamiflu and antibiotics and
told him to go home and rest. One week later he was in the hospital.
His organs were failing. "The doctor told me you have a young man who
is as sick as you can be without being dead and he believes in
miracles, but he didn't think we were going to get one and I said 'oh
no oh no, it's not his time to go, he still has so much more to do,'"
she said while fighting back tears.

There was no swine flu vaccine yet available for Lee as production has
been delayed. Still today, there are limited quantities in stock. In
Montgomery County Saturday hundreds lined up at Lonestar College for a
"drive-thru flu" shot. Hundreds of people were turned away because
UTMB only had 140 doses to give out. The county requested 20,000 from
the federal government. "It's just been crazy. People are desperate to
get these vaccines. We had some really frustrated people who can't get
the H1N1 vaccine," said Emily Llinas with the Montgomery County Health
Department.

Now that the President has declared a national emergency, John Michael
Lee's mother hopes everyone treats it that way. "You have to take this
flu seriously because people aren't, he didn't and now he's gone and
maybe his story will keep someone else from dying," said Lee-Gray.

Lee's death continues a scary trend in Houston. All but one of the
city's H1N1 deaths were either young adults or children. More than
1,000 people nationwide have died from swine flu. There have been 16
deaths in the greater Houston area.

US under Flu Epidemic for the past 3 weeks

This report by CDC is published by this chinese news agency, but not
widely published by US news agencies, as shown by google news search.

It can only get worse as winter approaches and the vaccine is too slow
in coming.

The second wave of Spanish Flu in 1918 had nothing to do with
mutation. It was just winter.
Similarly for this Swine Flu 2009.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/24/content_12314008.htm

U.S. records notable increase in deaths from phneumonia, flu in past
week
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-24 13:09:46 Print

HOUSTON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U. S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 507 more deaths caused by
pneumonia and influenza (P&I) in the past week, bringing the death
toll to 2,827 since the beginning of September.

The CDC said on its web site that from Aug. 30 to Oct. 17 there
had been 8,204 laboratory-confirmed flu-related hospitalizations and
411 deaths, 21,832 pneumonia and influenza syndrome hospitalizations
and 2,416 deaths nationwide.

Last Friday, the CDC reported 4,958 laboratory-confirmed flu-
related hospitalizations and 292 deaths. Meanwhile, the pneumonia and
influenza syndrome-based hospitalizations and deaths reached 15,696
and 2,029 respectively in the previous week.

Most notable figure the CDC released on Friday is that the
proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) based
on the 122 Cities Report has crossed what is recognized as the
threshold of epidemic.

"During the 41th week (last week), 6.9 percent (comparing 6.7
percent in the previous week) of all deaths reported through the 122-
Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to P&I. " the CDC said,
pointing out that "this percentage was above the epidemic threshold of
6.6 percent for week 40."

The P&I mortality has been above the threshold of epidemic for
three consecutive weeks since the 39th week, the CDC added.

Meanwhile, visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI)
continued to climb and has been much higher than expected for this
time of the year.

Nationwide, 7.1 percent of visits to doctors reported through the
U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet)
were due to influenza-like illness (ILI), comparing with 6.1 percent
in the previous week.

This percentage is more than tripling the national baseline of 2.3
percent, the CDC experts explained.

Both World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. National Respiratory
and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) reported to CDC's
Influenza Division that all subtyped influenza Aviruses being reported
to CDC in recent weeks were 2009 influenza A/H1N1 viruses.

All these key figures indicate that the country as a whole has
been in the second wave of the epidemic of A/H1N1 virus since early
October.

Also on Friday, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden admitted that the
A/H1N1 flu was more widespread now than it's ever been and had
resulted in more than 1,000 deaths so far.

"Many millions" of Americans had acquired A/H1N1 flu so far, he
said at a press conference in Atlanta. "The government doesn't test
everyone to confirm A/H1N1 flu, so it doesn't have an exact count," he
explained.

"We are now in the second wave of pandemic influenza," the CDC
director said, pointing out that 46 states are reporting widespread
flu activities.

The latest statistics released by the CDC on Friday show that the
only states without widespread flu are Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey
and South Carolina.

"What we have learned more in the last couple of weeks is that not
only is the virus unpredictable, but vaccine production is much less
predictable than we expected," Dr. Frieden told reporters.

A CDC survey released on Thursday found that one in five U.S.
children had a flu-like illness earlier this month, and most of the
cases were probably A/H1N1 flu.

"We expect that influenza will occur in waves. We can't predict
how high, how far or how long the wave will go or when the next will
come. " Dr. Frieden predicted.

As nervous Americans clamor for the A/H1N1 flu vaccine, production
of the vaccine is running several weeks behind schedule as the vaccine
is growing more slowly in egg-based cultures than manufacturers have
anticipated, resulting in fewer available doses.

"As of Friday, there have been 16.1 million doses on hand
nationwide, up from 14.1 million on Wednesday," Frieden said. "It's
frustrating to all of us. We are nowhere near where we thought we
would be by now."

Because of production delays, the government has backed off
initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million vaccine
doses would be available by mid-October.

The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs and the yield hasn't
been as high as was initially hoped, CDC officials explained.

The wide spread of the A/H1N1 virus epidemic plus the unpredicted
delay of the vaccines are complicating the CDC strategy against the
second wave of the epidemic.

"Whether this will continue through the fall into winter, whether
it will go away and come back in the winter, only time will tell," Dr.
Frieden said.
Editor: Deng Shasha

More people administered with Tamilflu died: CDC

This is the data collected so far from CDC.

You may say that it is useless to use Tamilflu which is the correct
response to the data but this could be due to the administration of
Tamilflu after the recommended 48 hours after the onset of symptoms.

Tamilflu no longer helps but instead hinder the immune system of the
victim who are administered Tamilflu after the recommended 48 hours.
Worse, it also increases the chance of Tamilflu resistant Swine Flu
virus, surviving.

Another possibility is that Tamilflu was used only for the sickest as
recommended earlier by WHO. Unfortunately it has backfired. It creates
more death than it saves, or is it? Someone need to scrutinise the
data very carefully.

One thing is for sure, manufacturers disallow the use of Tamilflu
after 48 hours.

So the best response is to quickly use Tamilflu without waiting for
the severity of the flu symptoms to appear which usually occurs only
after 48 hours.

This is what WHO is trying to recommend now but due to political
bickerings, it cannot be made more clearly. Or at least someone in WHO
who are still sane and responsible enough.

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Government/who_urged_prompt_antiviral_treatment_for_suspected_h1n1_flu_1710.html

Home | Non-food | Government | WHO urges prompt antiviral treatment
for suspected H1N1 flu
WHO urges prompt antiviral treatment for suspected H1N1 flu
18/10/2009 02:24:00admin
Font size:

Saturday Oct 17, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- The World Health
Organization warned doctors of a wave of possibly severe swine flu
complications, including life-threatening viral pneumonia, and urged
them to treat suspected H1N1 flu cases as quickly as possible with
antiviral drugs.

Unfortunately, use of antiviral drugs did not seem to reduce the swine
flu deaths. The first report of 36 pediatric deaths from
complications of H1N1 flu virus found it is true that patients with
H1N1 flu who died are found suffering another type of infection. But
the report shows that the number of deaths is actually higher among
those who received antiviral treatment than those who did not receive
treatment.

According to WHO data, the currently circulating H1N1 flu virus is
more damaging to young people than older people. And a new study has
suggested that older people may have become infected with flu strains
that are similar to the so called 2009 novel H1N1 virus strain and
they become immune from the pandemic H1N1 virus.

Nikki Shindo, WHO's Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response
Department was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying "It's not like
seasonal influenza." Seasonal flu affects more elderly people than
children. "It can cause very severe disease in previously healthy
young adults."

Shindo made the comments at a special three-day meeting in Washington
in front of more than 100 health specialists from all over the world.
The WHO's medical specialist said the virus appears more able than the
seasonal flu virus to get deep in the lungs. Once settled there, it
can cause viral pneumonia which can lead to severe lung damage and a
life-threatening condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The H1N1 virus is everywhere and in a rare response WHO declared the
H1N1 flu pandemic in June even though deaths caused by the flu are
rare. And Forbes reported that in New Zealand and Australia, where
the H1N1 virus is prevalent in the summer time, the death rate from
flu is actually lower than that recorded for previous years. One
theory again reported by Forbes is that infection with H1N1 flu
actually gives the patients strengthened immunity and the common
seasonal flu virus in many cases was prevented from infecting those
with H1N1 flu, reducing the fatality rate from overall infections.

The first report of 36 children who died from H1N1 virus released by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one third
apparently suffered no underlying medical conditions. However, many
of the "healthy" victims are non-white and some experts suggested that
it is likely these healthy children died because they were vitamin D
deficient, which makes a person vulnerable to influenza infection of
all types.

By david Liu - davidl at foodconsumer dot org and editing by Sheilah
Downey - sheilahd at foodconsumer dot org

Young women more susceptible to swine flu: Study

ICU can be easily owerwhelmed even in Canada. Canadian death rate is
half that of Mexico because of the wide use of lung machines.

http://www.canada.com/health/Young+women+more+susceptible+swine+Study/2096109/story.html

The study found that 29 people (17 per cent) died — most within the
first 14 days after becoming critically sick. Twenty-one (72 per cent)
of those who died were female.
Photograph by: File, AFP/Getty

A "striking" proportion of severe swine flu infections are occurring
among young women, according to Canadian research that shows severe
H1N1 can hit previously healthy teens and young adults hard and fast
in a pattern previously only ever seen with 1918 Spanish flu.

The study shows that severe disease and death in the outbreak is
concentrated in relatively healthy young people, aged 10 to 60. Only
30 per cent had serious underlying health problems, such as cancer,
chronic kidney failure or medication-dependent diabetes.

"Seventy per cent of them would have said to you, 'I'm pretty
healthy.' I think that's pretty startling, quite frankly," said Dr.
Anand Kumar, an intensivist with the Winnipeg Regional Health
Authority and an associate professor of critical care and infectious
disease at the University of Manitoba.

The study found that of the 113 women and 55 men admitted to an
intensive care unit between April and August, the mean age was 32.
Overall, 29 people (17 per cent) died — most within the first 14 days
after becoming critically sick. Twenty-one (72 per cent) of those who
died were female.

"It's a high mortality rate for young people," Kumar said. "When you
bear in mind that these are people from the age of 15 to 55 years old,
you don't see a lot of diseases that have that kind of mortality in a
large group of people that age. These people are people in the prime
of their lives."

Another study, also released Monday, found an H1N1 death rate twice as
high in Mexico. By 60 days, 24 of the 58 patients (41 per cent)
admitted to intensive care with H1N1 in the Mexican study had died.

The major difference between Mexico and Canada is access to high-tech
care, Kumar said.

But there were striking similarities in the findings from both
countries, investigators said: Once admitted to hospital, people with
severe H1N1 rapidly got worse, suffering severe hypoxemia — lower than
normal oxygen in the blood — that required, on average, 12 days of
mechanical ventilation and extraordinary "rescue" therapies to keep
them alive. One such therapy is a machine that takes blood out of the
body, oxygenates it and returns it to the body, similar to a bypass
machine for heart surgery.

"Unlike (heart) surgery, when you do this for a couple of hours, some
of these guys required it for a week or two weeks, or longer," said
Kumar.

"Rescue therapies are therapies that we use when we've got nothing
else left," he said. They are also not widely available in Canada.

Shock and multiple organ failure were also common in the sickest
patients.

The Canadian study, by members of the Canadian Critical Care Trials
Group, represents the largest series of patients with severe swine flu
yet described, and includes both adults and children treated at 38
ICUs across Canada.

Apart from usual flu symptoms, the cases "stand out" for the number
that involved gastrointestinal tract symptoms, shortness of breath and
"occasional frothy lung fluid" on cough, or during aspiration, the
researchers said.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the team
warns that, if H1N1 infections increase in coming months as expected,
intensive care units will become the choke point.

And an accompanying editorial from doctors at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine warns hospitals need to develop explicit
policies to determine "who will and will not receive life support" if
resources become scarce.

During an outbreak of H1N1 in Winnipeg in the spring, "we went from no
cases to 40 cases simultaneously in the ICU in about three weeks,"
Kumar said in an interview. "It was really quite frightening, because
you don't know where the ceiling is and these guys are absolutely
critically ill. They're the sickest group of patients that I've seen
as a group in my life."

"They typically require two to three weeks of ventilation. That
completely overwhelms your ICU capacity. Your regular patients don't
disappear. You're still at 90 per cent capacity in your beds, but now
you've got to handle an extra 50 or 60 per cent of patients. It has
the potential to be life-threatening, in terms of bed capacity."

Kumar said that, for every three or four people hospitalized with
H1N1, one requires intensive care. "You can overload the ICU well
before you overload the hospital."

About one-third of critically ill patients in the Canadian study were
aboriginal Canadians. Fifty of the 168 patients were children.

As to why women are disproportionately hit, "nobody knows," Kumar
said. In most infectious disease, males make up a lager proportion of
cases, and have a higher death rate. Pregnancy is a risk factor for
severe H1N1 disease. And women, on average, have less lung capacity
than men.

As well, obesity has been shown to be a risk factor for severe H1N1
disease. Excess fat tissue might further compromise a woman's lung
capacity.

Overall, the average time from the onset of symptoms to admission to
hospital was four days, and from hospitalization to admission to an
ICU one day.

Most times influenza should improve after two to three days. "What
you're seeing here is people who are not improving, toughing it out
and then coming into hospital when they start to struggle," Kumar
said.

The most common underlying health problems among critically ill
patients in the study were lung disease obesity, hypertension and a
history of smoking or diabetes.

He said the findings underscore the benefit of vaccination.

"The vaccine risk-benefit ratio is crazy in favour of getting
vaccinated. People should be getting vaccinated."

skirkey@canwest.com

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