Even More on H1N1

Interesting H1N1 study from California, where they’ve had a pretty severe time of it – both now and when the H1N1 pandemic first hit last spring and summer.  

And in this analysis of just under 1100 patients admitted to hospital with H1N1 infections – that is, the most severely ill flu patients – they came up with two very interesting findings. 

First, in this analysis, obesity emerged – as it has in several previous studies – as a major risk factor for death with H1N1. 

Interestingly, in the past, obesity does not seem to have been a major risk factor for people infected with seasonal flu viruses.

Also, these researchers found that although the elderly are less likely to develop an H1N1 infection in the first place, if the elderly get sick enough to be admitted with H1N1, they do much worse than younger people; that is, the death rate for severely ill elderly people infected with H1N1 is much higher than the death rate for severely ill middle-aged people. 

Just another indication that no one is immune to this potentially serious infection, and although, thank God or whomever that the virus has not mutated and most people who get infected recover without any hassles, this is a potentially lethal infection that is highly preventable with immunization, so really, common sense dictates that anyone who can get immunized, should get immunized.