Buckwheat's Epidemic - Swine flu can kill fast, researchers agree
- From: Patriot Games <Patriot@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:03:15 -0400
http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArticle/CHLT/nhealthNews_uUSTRE59F54620091017
New flu can kill fast, researchers agree
Fri, Oct 16 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new H1N1 flu is "strikingly different" from
seasonal influenza, killing much younger people than ordinary flu and
often killing them very fast, World Health Organization officials said
on Friday.
A review of studies done during the seven months the virus has been
circulating shows it is usually mild, but can cause unusual and severe
symptoms in an unlucky few, according to a WHO-sponsored meeting in
Washington this week.
"Participants who have managed such cases agreed that the clinical
picture in severe cases is strikingly different from the disease
pattern seen during epidemics of seasonal influenza," WHO's Dr. Nikki
Shindo told the meeting.
Swine flu was declared a pandemic in June and has been circulating
globally. WHO stopped trying to count cases, as there are nowhere near
enough tests to formally diagnose everyone who gets sick.
Separately on Friday, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said 86 U.S. children had died of swine
flu, most in the 5- to 17-year old age group that normally escapes
serious bouts with flu.
"In severe cases, patients generally begin to deteriorate around three
to five days after symptom onset. Deterioration is rapid, with many
patients progressing to respiratory failure within 24 hours, requiring
immediate admission to an intensive care unit," Shindo said.
While most such patients need to be put on ventilators right away,
some are not helped by this treatment, Shindo noted.
In some places, she said, emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with
patients, many requiring critical care.
The good news is that quick treatment with the antiviral drugs
oseltamivir, made by Roche AG under the brand name Tamiflu, and
zanamivir, made by GlaxoSmithKline as Relenza, helps a great deal, she
said.
Usually influenza is a disease of the upper respiratory tract,
affecting the nose and throat. But H1N1 goes deeper, into the lungs.
"This virus really likes the lower respiratory tract. That means this
virus is very likely to cause viral pneumonia compared to seasonal
influenza," Shindo told a news conference.
Among the doctors speaking to the WHO meeting was Dr. Anand Kumar of
St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who reported swine flu's
effects in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week.
"At one point, 50 percent of the available ICU (intensive care unit)
beds in the entire city were filled with H1N1 patients," Kumar said in
a telephone interview. "We basically maxed out our capacity.
Shindo said WHO was struggling to understand what the risk factors are
for a serious bout with swine flu.
"Although the exact role of obesity is poorly understood at present,
obesity and especially morbid obesity have been present in a large
portion of severe and fatal cases," Shindo said. "Obesity has not been
recognized as a risk factor in either past pandemics or seasonal
influenza."
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