Buckwheat's Failure - 28 Pregnant Women Dead From Swine Flu, Vaccine STILL NOT HERE!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,559062,00.html?test=latestnews

CDC: 28 Pregnant Women Dead From H1N1
Friday, October 02, 2009

A stark reminder about how deadly the new H1N1 virus can be. During a
news briefing Thursday, U.S. health officials said the virus has hit
pregnant women especially hard.

?The CDC is aware of about 700 cases of 2009 H1N1 in pregnant women
since late April or early May,? Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the
Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention told FOXNews.com.
?There have been about 100 pregnant women admitted to intensive care
units and there have been 28 pregnant women who have died from 2009
H1N1.?

Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization
and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC said these numbers ?are really
upsetting? and urged pregnant women to get the seasonal flu vaccine
and the H1N1 vaccine.

?It?s safe and effective and we think it?s important to get this
(H1N1) vaccine out as soon as it?s available,? Schuchat said at the
briefing.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, head of maternal fetal medicine at Hackensack
University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., and managing editor of
health at FOXNews.com, said there are two fundamental risk factors
that pregnant women face when they get the flu.

?First, pregnant woman have an immune system that is slow ? it?s like
their immune system is on standby ? and it?s not as reactive as a
non-pregnant person?s,? Alvarez said. ?And because of that, viruses,
especially flu viruses of any sort can create a very severe
infection.?

The second challenge women face is as the baby grows inside the womb,
the anatomy of a woman?s chest changes.

?Their whole respiratory volume changes,? Alvarez said. ?So if they
get a secondary infection, such as pneumonia after the flu, it makes
it very challenging and problematic for doctors to get airflow back
into the lungs.?

Until now, the CDC has never really looked closely at influenza in
pregnant women.

?It?s hard to say if what we?re seeing now is out of the ordinary
compared to the how pregnant women have been affected by the seasonal
flu,? said Tom Skinner, CDC spokesman. ?But what we are hearing from
physicians around the country is that they?ve never seen pregnant
women impacted like this by the flu? and so we?re going to have to
some more research to understand if this is a unique situation to the
this new virus.?

Alvarez, who treats high-risk pregnancy patients, said at this time
he?s making sure all of his patients know about the dangers of the
flu.

?Just yesterday, a patient informed me that her son had the flu, so we
immediately began administering antiviral medications, until the new
vaccine becomes available.?

Unlike other patients, pregnant women cannot get the nasal spray
FluMist, Skinner said.

?They must get the injectable vaccine, which will hopefully be
available starting next week,? he added.

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