Swine Flu/N1H1...A Big Deal-Or Not?

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This is the part I'm interested in:

Quote:

(25 deaths in children less than 2 years, 12 deaths in children 2-4 years, 34 deaths in children 5-11 years, and 43 deaths in individuals 12-17 years)

My understanding is that the mortality rates are usually skewed more towards the very youngest children, instead of the 5-11 year and 12-17 year brackets actually showing significantly more deaths. No? (I'm happy to be reassured.)

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@sozobe,

Sozobe - be reassured! First, the actual numbers aren't large enough to cause concern for an 8-year old, second the CDC's multivariate statistical models don't show age as a significant risk factor. The 3 major risk factors identified so far are listed in previous posts. Plus, the vaccine works.

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@High Seas,

Yeah, the actual numbers are quite low. I mostly mention it just in terms of an adult (Gupta) saying "hey, I got it and it was about the same as any other flu," when I think it's worse than most flus for my daughter's age bracket -- but worse is still not necessarily that bad. I'm trying (and mostly succeeding) to not worry about it much.

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@sozobe,

Dr Gupta has 2 of the 3 risk factors, ( http://able2know.org/topic/135722-3#post-3750111 ) and from all accounts tent life on a dusty plateau in Afghanistan hardly meets optimal hygienic conditions, especially when you spend all day visiting their primitive hospitals. Quit worrying Smile

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@High Seas,

Mortality rate for the seasonal flu is usually around .05%, but it's primarily the elderly and very young that succumb.

The pattern with H1N1 appears significantly different.

I'm glad I work from home, and that our kids aren't in school yet.

The childrens hospital in Austin has set up tents due to the number of kids coming down with it, and I know two pregnant women who've been hospitalized.

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

The childrens hospital in Austin has set up tents due to the number of kids coming down with it, and I know two pregnant women who've been hospitalized.

Tents outside of hospitals? I haven't seen any mention of that. Are you sure about that?

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@realjohnboy,

Yeah, that sounds like a Civil War thing.

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@realjohnboy,

Quote:

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Dell Children's Medical Center offers state-of-the-art facilities to most of its patients. But some patients who show up with flu-like symptoms over the next few days may be shown the door -- not to a high-tech private room, but to a canvas tent set up outdoors.

Starting Tuesday, patients with mild flu-like symptoms will be treated, at least initially, in two large tents set up outside the emergency room Monday.

"In some cases, it will be possible for the patient to be seen, register, see the physician and be discharged right from the tent and never even have to come into the hospital," said Dr. Pat Crocker, head of emergency medical services at Dell.

http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou090922_tnt_austin-flu-outbreak-tents.1a5247d4d.html

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

Duly noted, Hawkeye. Makes sense to assess "mild flu-like symptoms" outside of the ER.
The initial objective of this thread was to report on how H1N1 is affecting us in our areas.
Thanks for the report.

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@realjohnboy,

you might check further....my hunch is that this is a practice run. This generation of medical workers has no experience with extraordinary requirements to deal with the patient load. History books are great, but there is no substitute for doing it. If I am right a few hospitals will put up tents and use them for a few days, and a lot of administrators from other hospitals will come to watch and learn, so that they can do it if they need to.

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@hawkeye10,

Sounds like an attempt to keep the flu out of the hospital.

Someone I know had reported that it was because they were out of beds, but I can't confirm that.

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I did a google search "Reported swine flu cases Austin Texas August 2009" and came up with an Austin newspaper report from 9/21 saying that the Dell Children's Medical Center had erected tents after being "inundated" with people coming in complaining of flu-like symptoms. That was not elaborated on as to the number of people, diagnoses, admissions etc.
That was the best I could come up with.

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@realjohnboy,

reporting is here:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/health&id=7029509

my hunch was not correct

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

Well done, Hawkeye. The story I cited from an Austin paper was the best I could find but was very sloppy journalism. You did much better in your search.
One point I did catch is that the "regular" flu season in TX typically starts in mid to late Oct. A bump-up now is ominous.

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@realjohnboy,

My understanding is that they fully expect the regular seasonal flu to make its normal rounds.

This current flu is H1N1.

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@DrewDad,

What I meant to say was that the regular flu season typically starts in Oct so "flu-like symptoms" now suggests N1H1. Evidently, in some places, there is more effort being put into treating the patients vs compiling stats on which flu is responsible.

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Swine Flu/N1H1...A Big Deal-Or Not?

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