‘Swine Flu’ Strain Returns.California Death Toll Climbs to 243… Targets Healthy, Middle Aged Adults & Children
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admin on February 20, 2014
The H1N1 virus responsible for the 2009 global pandemic is back. State health officials from across the country say the resurgence is resulting in a dramatic rise in flu deaths in young and middle-aged adults and in children this season. While the reported death tolls so far are only a fraction of what they were four years ago, they are significantly higher than last year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the flu has been killing at epidemic levels since mid-January. With one month to six weeks to go in the flu season, which typically ends in March or April, the CDC said the number of people visiting doctors and hospitals for flu-like symptoms is declining overall, but some states are continuing to see high levels of flu activity or even increases in activity. Although the flu usually disproportionately affects the very old and the very young, this season 60 percent of those hospitalized for influenza have been age 18 to 64. “These severe flu outcomes are a reminder that flu can be a very serious disease for anyone, including young, previously healthy adults,” CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said. H1N1, which is also known as the “swine flu” because it was originally a respiratory illness in pigs, has been popping up in some patients seasonally for the past few years, but this is the first flu season since the 2009 pandemic in which it has been circulating so widely. The outbreak has been especially severe in California. There have been 243 deaths of residents younger than 65 so far this year. An additional 41 cases were reported but have not been confirmed. In the 2012-13 season, there were 26 deaths by this time, and in the 2011-12 season there were nine deaths. In the 2009-10 season, there were 527 deaths. Surveillance reports from the health departments in Virginia and Maryland show that the flu is widespread in the region, but the two states and the District of Columbia do not track adult deaths from the flu. The District has seen a surge in flu cases in the past month, with 90 percent being H1N1. Virginia reported that one child died from flu this season, while Maryland and the District had no child deaths.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, some hospitals have been so inundated with patients complaining of flu-like symptoms that triage tents have been set up on their lawns to prevent them from spreading the virus to others in the medical centers. In Sacramento, intensive care units are overflowing with those with breathing issues, water in their lungs, organ failure or other complications from the flu. Online, residents are swapping stories via social media of people who have died of the flu, and doctors and public officials are seizing on the panic to urge the unvaccinated to get a flu shot immediately. North Carolina also appears to be looking at a possible record year for flu deaths. The number of deaths stands at 64 for 2014. Last year, the state had 59 deaths the whole season, and in 2012 it had only nine. In a study of Duke University Medical Center patients published this month, researchers found that those hospitalized for the flu between Nov. 1 and Jan. 8 were much younger — with an average age of 28.5 years — and more likely to have serious complications than those who had H1N1 in the past. About 40 percent of the patients this year ended up needing intensive care, compared with 20 percent in 2009. “We don’t know why, but it is worrisome,” said Jelena Catania, an infectious diseases fellow at Duke and a co-author of the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Laurie Forlano, deputy state epidemiologist for Virginia, said that although it’s too early to draw any conclusions, there are indications that the population being affected in her state is also skewing toward young adults. She said that H1N1 was included in this year’s flu vaccine, so some of those who are coming down with the flu may not have gotten the vaccine. The vaccine’s efficacy rate is usually in the 50 to 70 percent range. Meanwhile, the severity of this year’s flu is renewing the controversy over mandatory flu vaccinations. In Rhode Island, the state has proposed a regulation that would require annual flu vaccines for children up to age 5 and would require those with exemptions to stay out of day care during outbreaks. Opponents, which include the American Civil Liberties Union, say parents should have the right to choose the best medical treatment for their children. A similar debate took place in New York City in December, when the board of health voted in favor of a mandatory vaccine for children younger than 6. The reemergence of H1N1 in the United States comes as even more virulent strains that are combinations of several genetic strains begin to appear around the world. In recent months, the World Health Organization has been tracking more than 300 cases, mostly in China, of people infected by a dangerous avian influenza strain, H7N9. A quarter of those infected are estimated to have died, but so far the WHO says there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission. This month, there was more alarming news: Chinese officials, writing in the journal Lancet, said they identified yet another brand-new bird flu, H10N8, in a 73-year-old woman in Nanchang, a city in the southeastern part of the country. Researchers hypothesize that the woman, the first known death from this strain, may have contracted the virus while at a poultry market. The scientists warned that the virus could become extremely dangerous if it developed the ability to be transmitted from human to human. “The pandemic potential of this novel virus should not be underestimated,” the researchers concluded. Comments:
Bravo, Dr. Elkins, for your comment. It’s so much easier for human beings in a fear-based society to be reactive, to react in panic to stories such as these, to run to Walgreen’s, stick out their arms and shout “Yes, yes, give me that shot!” than it is to be pro-active, like you say, Dr. Elkins. Meanwhile, it is voices that yours that call out from the dark. If there is only one illumination as a result, that is one. I, for one, needed your voice today, as I work every day of my life, staving off doctors and hospitals, fighting off leukemia by eating a macrobiotic diet, by fixing sour relationships, by deep-breathing outdoors and spending my time meditating, doing yoga and otherwise pro-actively loosening the binds of a sick society’s dictates on my heart, mind, body and soul. Today, this is the road less traveled. Maybe tomorrow, as voices such as yours rise to the surface, our road will be full of companions. Thank you for leaving a comment today. You stopped me in my old inclination toward panic. |
There may in fact be a virus for the swine flu… there are millions if not trillions of viruses…It is not the virus…never has been. Its about immune systems that are shot. We as a public no longer take care of ourselves and work within a system that wants us to be sick. When was the last time you did a liver flush?, a kidney flush?, or did anything to pump up your immune system? We as a public do not know how to pump up our immune systems…we think we can take cheap vitamins, buy cheap flushes and we’ll be healthy. We work at jobs we don’t really like, live in disfunctional relationships, eat processed foods, drink alcohol, smoke and watch television and wonder why we’re sick… And to top that off we all get the poison laden flu shot and we really wonder why we’re sick???
I give up… retired and I take care of my own. Tired of complaining clients who want to be fixed… instead of getting well. Health is not some thing you can buy… you must take action, clean your body better than your car and get a better atitude. You are your own physician… eat right, laugh, be funny and get a life. Quit your doctor, quit the hospital.. they just want to drug and cut you… hello? Aren’t we drugged enough? Wake up.