Swine Flu Is Spreading Rapidly
The deadly H1N1 virus, more commonly called the swine flu, is rapidly spreading across the entire country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.
According to The New York Times, Federal health officials released Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began taking orders from the states for the new swine flu vaccine.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, the disease control center’s director of immunization and respiratory disease, said there was “significant flu activity in virtually all states,” which, she added, was “quite unusual for this time of year.”
She is specifically concerned about pregnant women. The Times reported that as of late August, 100 had been hospitalized in intensive care, and 28 had died since the beginning of the outbreak in April.
“These are really upsetting numbers,” she said, urging obstetricians and midwives to advise patients to get swine flu shots as soon as they become available.
Also of major concern is that the flu infections in younger children are increasing. The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday released 300,000 courses of children’s liquid Tamiflu from the national pandemic stockpile, with the first batches going to Texas and Colorado.
Last week, disease centers reported that 936 Americans had died of flu symptoms or of flu-associated pneumonia since Aug. 30, although that is low compared with the 36,000 that die annually of seasonal flu. The alarming message is that the deaths are concentrated in age groups that do not normally succumb, and the regular flu season will not arrive until November.
Scientists have looked at lung samples from 77 fatal swine flu cases and found that in about a third of the cases, the patient had died not from flu alone, but from bacteria that infiltrate when flu inflames the lungs.
The Times stated that Dr. Schuchat said the “good news,” is that most infections were streptococcus pneumoniae, a common bacteria for which there is a vaccine. That vaccine is normally given only to people over 65 or with chronic heart and lung problems, but only about one in five Americans eligible for that shot ever gets it. More people in those categories should, she said.
