H1N1 Hitting Young Much Harder

(October 25, 2009) - Unlike with the seasonal flu (Read about "Influenza"), the elderly are not being hit as hard by the new H1N1 influenza, the so-called swine flu. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than half of the people hospitalized by the H1N1 virus are under 25, 39 percent of hospitalizations are in people 25 to 64 years of age. And only 7 percent of hospitalizations are occurring in the elderly.

"This is really, really different from what we see with seasonal flu," says Dr. Ann Schuchat, the director of national center for immunization and respiratory diseases. "With seasonal flu, about 60 percent of hospitalizations occur in people 65 and over. And here, we're only seeing about 7 percent of hospitalizations in that age group."

Almost a quarter of deaths are occurring in young people under the age of 25, according to CDC. Specifically, 23.6 percent of the deaths are in that age group. About 65 percent of the deaths are in people 25 to 64 years of age. And just 11.6 percent or 12 percent of the deaths from H1N1 since September 1st are occurring in seniors 65 and up.

"This is dramatically different than what we see with seasonal flu. With seasonal flu 90 percent of fatalities occur in people 65 and over," says Schuchat. "Nearly 60 percent of fatalities are occurring under thing age of 65."

CDC says because of these statistics healthcare providers should administer antivirals early, not to wait for tests.

"We really want to stress how important early treatment with antivirals is in people who are high-risk or people with severe presentations," says Schuchat. "In such patients, we don't want Docs to wait for the lab confirmations. The time it will take to get the lab tests back shouldn't be waited for. If you have a person who is severely ill or a person with risk factors like pregnancy, asthma, diabetes (Read about "Healthy Pregnancy" "Asthma" "Diabetes"), children under 2, and you suspect flu, we recommend any viral medicines be given promptly."

CDC also says that 82 million of the 114 million does of seasonal flu vaccine have been distributed, but there have been reports of some places needing more. Much fewer doses of the swine flu vaccine are available right now, only about 13 million.