ATLANTA, Oct 13, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Data on 1,400 U.S. adults and 500
children hospitalized because of H1N1 indicate most had underlying conditions, a
health official said Tuesday.
Dr. Ann Schuchat, director of the national center for immunization and
respiratory diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, said the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are occurring in
younger people, they're not occurring in people age 65 and older.
"In adults, the most common underlying conditions were asthma and chronic lung
disease, chronic heart disease and immunosuppression," Schuchat told reporters
in a news briefing.
"And in children, the most common underlying conditions were asthma and chronic
lung disease, neurologic or neuromuscular diseases and sickle cell or other
blood disorders."
However, this virus can be serious even in healthy people with no underlying
conditions. We have seen and reported results from the autopsies, Schuchat says.
"In about 20 percent of the fatalities, what we saw was the influenza leading to
a bacterial pneumonia. Sometimes it was the staph aureus including Methicillin
resistant Staphylococcus aureus, sometimes it was the pneumococcus and that's
where we're telling people that pneumococcal vaccine is important in protecting
people from pneumococcal pneumonia," Schuchat said.
"Most people who develop H1N1 influenza will have an illness that can be cared
for at home without needing treatment, but some people will have a very severe
course."
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