The new influenza strain circulating around most of the United States is putting a worrying number of young adults and children into the hospital and hitting more schools than usual, U.S. health officials said on Monday.
The H1N1 swine flu virus killed a vice principal at a New York City school over the weekend and has spread to 48 states. While it appears to be mild, it is affecting a disproportionate number of children, teenagers and young adults.
This includes people needing hospitalization -- now up to 200, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"That's very unusual, to have so many people under 20 to require hospitalization, and some of them in (intensive care units)," Schuchat told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"We are now experiencing levels of influenza-like illness that are higher than usual for this time of year," Schuchat added. "We are also seeing outbreaks in schools, which is extremely unusual for this time of year."
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden agreed with Schuchat.
"We're seeing increasing numbers of people going to emergency departments saying they have fever and flu, particularly young people in the 5 to 17 age group, " Frieden, who has been named by U.S. President Barack Obama as the new CDC director, told a news conference.
I want to just close by saying that I think it's important to dispel the idea that we're out of the woods, or that this was a problem that really didn't merit response. I think that we continue to see illness, it's a new virus, it's capable of causing severe disease.
You'll see less in the news as cases go up in places like Japan and NYC (not just suspected in 15 closed schools because of high absenteeism, but also in ERs and doc offices), and down in Canada and Mexico. According to WHO, "40 countries have officially reported 9830 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 79 deaths." Its virulence mimics seasonal flu but its infectious pattern does not. Novel viruses are unpredictable, and this one has not yet run its course, and individuals with underlying health problems are at highest risk. Avoid the extremes of "horrible new plague" and "nothing here, move along", and follow the CDC reports as your news source, or look for the health reporters like Maggie Fox (Reuters), Helen Branswell (Canadian Press), or Donald McNeill (NY times) who have been following this story from the beginning.