H1N1 Flu Is A Serious Threat For Children In The 2010-2011 Influenza Season

H1N1 Flu Is A Serious Threat For Children In The 2010-2011 Influenza Season.
Among children hospitalized with the pandemic H1N1 flu most recent year in California, more than one-fourth ended up in thorough concern units or died, California Department of Public Health researchers report. "While hospitalization for 2009 H1N1 influenza in children appeared to happen at comparable rates as with seasonal influenza, this study provides further demonstrate that children, especially those with high-risk conditions, can be very ill with H1N1," said lead researcher Dr Janice K Louie. "Fortunately, not many children died. Those that did had many underlying conditions. Antiviral medication given inappropriate seems to have lessened the bet of severe illness," she added.

Young people were hit hard by H1N1 flu, with 10- to 18-year-olds accounting for 40 percent of cases, the researchers noted. This was most apt to due to a dearth of immunity, which older people acquired through repeated flu vaccinations of numerous strains of H1N1 or exposure to other H1N1 strains, the experts pointed out.

Flu experts don't preclude the H1N1 flu will pose a serious threat in the 2010-2011 flu season, but the review authors say doctors should promptly treat children with underlying risk factors, especially infants, who get the flu. "My compassionate is that we are over the hump," said Dr Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicament at New York University in New York City. "I am expecting this to be share of the seasonal flu this year, unless it mutates," he said.

The many people exposed to the H1N1 flu and the sizable tons vaccinated against it have created a large herd immunity, which should blunt this flu strain, Siegel said. In addition, the coeval seasonal flu vaccine, which is recommended for each and every one 6 months old and up, contains protection from H1N1 flu, he noted.

For the study, published in the November flow of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Louie's team examined the medical records of 345 children who were hospitalized or died from the H1N1 flu between April 23 and Aug 11 of 2009. Their median period was 6 years. During that time, 3,5 per 100000 children were hospitalized, most younger than 6 months, the researchers noted.

Most of these children (67 percent) suffered from other vigour problems as well as the flu. Nearly 60 percent had pneumonia, 27 percent were admitted to an concentrated worry component and 3 percent died, Louie's pile found. "Overall, rates of hospitalization in this case series were similar to seasonal influenza, with infants under twelve months of discretion having the highest rates," Louie said.

Sixty-nine percent were treated with antiviral drugs, the writing-room authors reported. "Children who had a positive impetuous test or who were treated with antivirals early in their illness were less likely to require intensive care segment admission or die," Louie said. Intensive care hospitalization and death were more likely surrounded by children with heart disease, cerebral palsy or developmental problems, the authors added.

Hispanic and diabolical children were less likely to die or need intensive care than white children, Louie's troupe said. "For children with influenza-like symptoms, especially those with high-risk conditions, clinicians should have high qualm for infection with influenza," Louie said. And parents should get their children, especially those with underlying health issues, vaccinated against the flu, she stressed.

In another shot in the same journal issue, researchers looked at children hospitalized for H1N1 flu in Israel. Dr Michal Stein of Edith Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, and colleagues found the add of children hospitalized and the furiousness of illness were similar to the findings in the mull over by Louie and colleagues. "In conclusion, our study showed that the severity and mortality of 2009 influenza A (H1N1) in Israel were milder than those described in earlier publications and were like to the figures reported in the facts on seasonal influenza," the researchers wrote accutane use ibs. "Children with underlying metabolic and neurologic disorders put the group at highest risk for severe complications following 2009 influenza A (H1N1) infection," they concluded.