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More U.S. child deaths from swine flu (H1N1)

by smkovalinsky | October 9, 2009 at 03:03 pm

1263 views | 16 Recommendations | 3 comments

According to health officials today, 76 US children have now died of H1N1. 19 new deaths were reported this week. Officials are warning that swine flu is evidently dangerous in particular for the young.

Swine flu is a global epidemic which originates in pigs (hence, the name) and is spreading from human to human. Its symptoms are like other flus - respitory and gastrointestinal inflammation and pain, joint pain, chills, fever - and it worsens underlying medical conditions.

The regular flu kills between 46 and 88 children a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That suggests deaths from the new H1N1 virus could dramatically outpace children's deaths from seasonal flu, if swine flu continues to spread as it has.
CDC officials say 10 more states, a total of 37, now have widespread swine flu. A week ago, reports suggested that cases might be leveling off and even falling in some areas of the country, but that did not turn out to be an enduring national trend.

"We are seeing more illness, more hospitalizations, and more deaths," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat said at a press conference Friday.

The new virus, first identified in April, is a global epidemic. The CDCdoesn't have an exact count of all swine flu deaths and hospitalizations, but existing reports suggest more than 600 have died and more than 9,000 have been hospitalized. Health officials believe millions of Americans have caught the virus.

The virus is hitting young people harder. Experts believe older people are suffering from it less, perhaps because they have a bit of immunity from exposure over the years to somewhat similar viruses.

Most healthy children recover and often suffer only mild symptoms. But some have died from it, often from a second infection that moves in while the body is weakened from the flu.

Kids with asthma or chronic heart or respiratory conditions also are at greater risk for serious complications.

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a211423

at 16:25 on October 9th, 2009

I just read about this and am saddened for them and the loss their parents are enduring.

I would like to know if these children were among those not immunized. If they were immunized, perhaps there was not enough time for them to become immune before being infected. Supposedly, it takes a month to six weeks for the vaccine to go into effect. If flu begins in October, then why arent we immunizing in August?

AGK

at 19:12 on October 9th, 2009

Good question, A! I know they said last month that there was a wait, a delay, but do not know what it entailed. Very sad to think of children dying of the flu in this day and age, and I was surprised to hear there are even many yearly child deaths from the regular flu. I really thought that was a thing of the past! I do hope this pandemic will not be as fearsome as they originally predicted. smk

RMN (not verified)

at 14:15 on October 11th, 2009

It is sad that these children died. As a parent who lost a child, I know how painful that is. Unfortunately, vaccine production takes time and vaccine against H1N1 is just now being distributed. According to the CDC, the production machine has geared up and is now going to produce and ship at the rate of about a million doses a week. Overall, the government has ordered over 200 million doses so there will be enough for everyone, but the spread of H1N1 is ahead of vaccine availability. People need to take other precautions such as handwashing, isolation of people with symptoms, etc.