Swine Flu worsens in U.S. as child deaths rise to 102

Swine Flu test kit developed by CDC.

By Salim Jiwa

ATLANTA – Child deaths from Swine Flu continued to escalate as the U.S. Centers for Disease control reported a “steep” rise in number of visits to doctors across 46 states from the flu epidemic.

Swine Flu has been confirmed to be the cause of death of 9 children during the week of Oct. 11 to Oct. 17 while two other children also died from influenza A but the virus was not subtyped, although it is suspected to be Swine Flu.

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The new reported deaths take laboratory confirmed child deaths across the U.S. to 95 with an additional seven child deaths proven to be from influenza A but not subtyped in labs, the CDC said on Friday.

“Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) increased steeply since last week in the United States and overall, are much higher than what is expected for this time of the year,” said the CDC, indicating a full blown epidemic across most of the U.S.

During an analysis of the previous week (identified as week 40) the CDC reported 11 children dead from Swine Flu.

In a briefing last week, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC called the spread of the virus an epidemic.

“And for the first week this fall, we’re seeing that the amount of influenza and pneumonia mortality is above the epidemic threshold,” she said.

“All of these things may suggest it’s a very busy and difficult flu season and we are seeing very high levels of activity around the country,” she said during the briefing last week.

“We are also having updates on the pediatric deaths. Unfortunately those are going up as well. There are now a total of 86 children under 18 who died from this H1N1 influenza virus, the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus,” she said before the tally of child deaths increased this week as she predicted.

“We had 11 more influenza pediatric deaths reported in week 40, which is the week that ends October 10. Ten of those are confirmed to be due to the new strain, the 2009 H1N1 strain and the 11th is probably due to that but the typing hasn’t been completed,” said Dr. Schuchat.

“About half of the deaths that we’ve seen in children since September 1st have been occurring in teens between the ages of 12 and 17. These are very sobering statistics, unfortunately, they are likely to increase,” she correctly predicted.

The latest data released by the CDC on Friday shows an even more dramatic turn for the worse in the U.S. Swine Flu spread. Thousands across the U.S. are sick from the virus.

The highlights of finding released on Friday are as follows:

• Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) increased steeply since last week in the United States, and overall, are much higher than what is expected for this time of the year. ILI activity now is higher than what is seen during the peak of many regular flu seasons.

• Total influenza hospitalization rates for laboratory-confirmed flu are climbing and are higher than expected for this time of year.

• The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) based on the 122 Cities Report has increased and has been higher than what is expected at this time of year for two weeks. In addition, 11 flu-related pediatric deaths were reported this week; 9 of these deaths were confirmed 2009 H1N1, and two were influenza A viruses, but were not subtyped. Since April 2009, CDC has received reports of 95 laboratory-confirmed pediatric 2009 H1N1 deaths and another 7 pediatric deaths that were laboratory confirmed as influenza, but where the flu virus subtype was not determined.

• Forty-six states are reporting widespread influenza activity at this time. They are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. This many reports of widespread activity are unprecedented during seasonal flu.

• Almost all of the influenza viruses identified so far are 2009 H1N1 influenza A viruses. These viruses remain similar to the virus chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine, and remain susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir with rare exception.

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