Severe Swine Flu Mainly Affects the Young Part I

10/26/2009 - News

Severe Swine Flu Mainly Affects the Young Part I

By: June Chen, MD

Tools:
  • Print this page
  • Bookmark this page
  • Forward this page to a friend
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

According to the results of two swine flu studies published online October 12, 2009 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, critical swine flu illness mostly affects young patients and is often deadly.

The first observational study, conducted in Canada by the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group H1N1 Collaborative, involved 215 critically ill patients, 50 of whom were children, with the 2009 influenza A (H1N1, or swine flu) infection in 38 adult and pediatric intensive care units throughout Canada. Among these critically ill swine flu patients, the overall 28-day mortality was 14.3 percent and the overall 90-day mortality was 17.3 percent. The researchers evaluated the characteristics of the study participants and found that critical illness due to swine flu in Canada occurred quickly, often in young adults, and was associated with low levels of oxygen in the blood, multi-system organ failure, the need for extended mechanical ventilation, and the frequent use of lung rescue therapies.
 
For details of the second swine flu study, conducted in Mexico, tune in tomorrow.
 

Source:

JAMA. 2009;302(17):(doi:10.1001/jama.2009.1496).

Created on: 10/19/2009
Reviewed on: 10/26/2009

Your rating: None
Read more about:
Tools:
  • Print this page
  • Bookmark this page
  • Forward this page to a friend
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Add your comment

  • Allowed HTML tags: <p><b><em> <strong> <cite> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Click here to subscribe to the comments

ADVERTISEMENT



Alzheimer test

Information For Caregivers

IAGG Webcast