ATLANTA, Oct 20, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Fifty-three percent of those
hospitalized for H1N1 flu are under age 25, while 7 percent hospitalized are age
65 and older, U.S. health officials said.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, said health officials
have data from 27 states of about 4,958 hospitalizations from Sept 1 to Oct. 10.
"More than half of the hospitalizations are occurring in young people under the
age of 25. This is really, really different from what we see with seasonal flu
... when about 60 percent of hospitalizations occur in people 65 and older,"
Schuchat told reporters in a telephone briefing Tuesday.
In addition, 23.6 percent of deaths from H1N1 are occurring in people under age
25, 65 percent of the deaths are in people ages 25-64, and 11.6 percent of the
deaths from H1N1 since Sept. 1 are occurring in seniors ages 65 and older.
In seasonal flu, 90 percent of fatalities occur in people age 65 and older,
Schuchat said.
"We really want to stress how important early treatment with anti-virals is in
people who are high-risk or people with severe presentations. In such patients,
we don't want doctors to wait for the lab confirmations," Schuchat said. "If you
have a person who is severely ill or a person with risk factors like pregnancy,
asthma, diabetes, children under age 2, and you suspect flu, we recommend any
viral medicines be given promptly."
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International