Obesity a risk factor in H1N1?

Some swine flu cases in America are raising questions about obesity’s role in why some people with infections become seriously ill.

A high proportion of those who have gotten severely ill from swine flu have been obese or extremely obese, but health officials have said that might be due to the fact that heavy people tend to have asthma and other conditions that make them more susceptible.

Obesity alone has never been seen as a risk factor for seasonal flu.

But in a report released Friday, health officials detailed the cases of 10 Michigan patients who were very sick from swine flu in late May and early June and ended up at a specialized hospital in Ann Arbor. Three of them died.

Nine of the 10 were either obese or extremely obese. Only three of the 10 had other health problems. Two of the three who died had no other health conditions.

This hardly settles the question of whether obesity is its own risk factor for swine flu. It’s possible the patients had undiagnosed heart problems or other unidentified conditions.

Still the finding was striking, investigators acknowledged.

Also remarkable were that five of the patients developed blood clots in their lungs, and six had kidney failure. Those complications have been seen in some swine flu patients before, but not usually in such a high proportion.

“Clinicians need to be aware that severe complications can occur in patients with the novel H1N1 virus, particularly in extremely obese patients,” said Dr. Tim Uyeki, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Uyeki was a co-author of the report, released by a CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Also on Friday, the CDC said the number of US swine flu cases has surpassed 37,000 and deaths have risen to 211.

The numbers rose from the 170 deaths and nearly 34,000 confirmed and suspected swine flu cases reported last week.

Those are lab-confirmed and probable infections. CDC officials believe those cases – which sought treatment and underwent testing – are just the tip of the iceberg. They estimate more than one million Americans have been infected with the virus so far, though many probably had only a mild illness.

Swine flu is the predominant flu type circulating currently, with nine states reporting widespread cases, down from 10 a week ago.

The pandemic was first identified in California in April. Since then a total of more than 94,000 cases have been reported in more than 100 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: Philstar

No wonder A (H1N1) cases are on the rise

I WAS made to understand, through media reports, that health screening has been put in place at all entry points into the country. To my disappointment, this is not true!

Last Sunday, my colleagues and I returned from Singapore via the Second Link. At the Tuas checkpoint, we cleared Immigration and Customs. However, there was no health screening on the thousands who entered Malaysia via the checkpoint.

This was in total contrast with what we experienced when we entered Singapore. The authorities there did their parts right.

The Malaysian authorities need to buck up or we will be faced with more people coming down with the A (H1N1) influenza.

MN,

Kuala Lumpur.

SOURCE: The Star

LINUNDUS COMMENTS ...

Even at Tuas (Johore) checkpoint where Immigration and Customs are supposedly equipped with the neccesary screening aparatus and yet "there was no health screening on the thousands who entered Malaysia (from Singapore) via the checkpoint". as revealed by MH. What can we expect from the various points of entry in Tawau (Kalabakan) and Sandakan where there are daily entries of Indonesians and Filipinos respectively? Are we doing enough to prevent the spread of A (H1N1) influenza or "Swine Flu" in Sabah?

A(H1N1): Sabah deputy CM, family in home quarantine

By MUGUNTAN VANAR

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Peter Pang and his family have put themselves on home quarantine after his son, who returned to Sandakan from Melbourne, was confirmed to be the state’s second Influenza A( H1N1) case.

“As responsible citizens, Datuk Pang and his family have taken the immediate step to quarantine themselves as a precaution,” his political secretary Jason Tan said.

Pang, his wife and two daughters are in self isolation after Pang’s 17-year-old son was confirmed by Health authorities on Jun 24 to have been infected and put in the isolation ward of the Duchess of Kent Hospital here.

Tan said that Pang’s son condition was stable.

Pang, who is state Youth and Sports Minister, was scheduled to launch the state level students’ forum competition at SM Tshung Tsin Thursday but was represented by state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

Sabah’s first case of A(H1N1) involved a 15-year-old girl here who was discharged from the Linghzi quarantine centre here last Friday after a week of anti-viral treatment.

The girl was studying in the United States and had returned to Kota Kinabalu via a MAS flight from Hong Kong on June 13.

In New Theory, Swine Flu Started in Asia, Not Mexico

Published by NYT: June 23, 2009

Contrary to the popular assumption that the new swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, federal agriculture officials now believe that it most likely emerged in pigs in Asia, but then traveled to North America in a human.

But they emphasized that there was no way to prove their theory and only sketchy data underpinning it.

There is no evidence that this new virus, which combines Eurasian and North American genes, has ever circulated in North American pigs, while there is tantalizing evidence that a closely related “sister virus” has circulated in Asia.

American breeding pigs, possibly carrying North American swine flu, are frequently exported to Asia, where the flu could have combined with Asian strains. But because of disease quarantines that make it hard to import Asian pigs, experts said, it is unlikely that a pig brought the new strain back West.

“The most likely scenario is that it came over in the mammalian species that moves most freely around the world,” said Dr. Amy L. Vincent, a swine flu specialist at the Agriculture Department’s laboratory in Ames, Iowa, referring, of course, to people.

The first person to carry the flu to North America from Asia, assuming that is what happened, has never been found and never will be, because people stop carrying the virus when they get better.

Moreover, the officials said, the chances of proving their theory are diminishing as the virus infects more people globally. It has now reached more than 90 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Since some of those people will inevitably spread it to pigs, its history will become impossible to trace.

Source and Read More Here: NYT

WHO Declares a Global Flu Pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global flu pandemic after holding an emergency meeting.

"We have evidence to suggest we are seeing the first pandemic of the 21st century " - Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general said.

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Doctor Margaret Chan, has formally stated that the swine flu outbreak is now a global pandemic.

Speaking at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Dr Chan said the further spread of the virus was inevitable.

However she added there was good reason to believe it would be of moderate severity in its early days.

It means the swine flu virus is spreading in at least two regions of the world with rising cases being seen in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile.

WHO chief Dr Margaret Chan said the move did not mean the virus was causing more severe illness or more deaths.

The swine flu (H1N1) virus first emerged in Mexico in April and has since spread to 74 countries.

Official reports say there have been nearly 30,000 cases globally and 141 deaths, with figures rising daily.

Hong Kong said it was closing all its nurseries and primary schools for two weeks following 12 school cases.

It is the first flu pandemic in 40 years - the last in 1968 killed about one million people.

However, the current pandemic seems to be moderate and causing mild illness in most people.

Most cases are occurring in young working age adults and a third to a half of complications are presenting in otherwise healthy people.

Dr Chan said: "We have evidence to suggest we are seeing the first pandemic of the 21st Century.

READ MORE HERE

Swine Influence Notice

A notice posted on the doors of a church

CATEGORY: Mail from priests — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:39 am

From a priest reader:

Making a visit at a church near my residence, my attention was drawn to a notice posted on the main inner doors, which I reproduce below. Since the greater the number of people involved in distributing Holy Communion, the greater the likelihood of spreading disease, it is reasonable to conclude that the employment of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist will also cease until further notice: one wonders why this is not mentioned… SWINE INFLUENZE [sic] NOTICE While Swine Influenza is not yet a problem in Australia; 1. Holy Communion will be distributed only under ONE KIND until further notice. 2. Those people who currently Communion [sic] on the tongue could think about receiving on the hand. 3. This is to reduce the likelihood of spreading disease within our Community this winter.

A good question is raised: the usually unnecessary employment of many Ministers of Communion would increase the risk of spreading disease, right? On a side note, when I was distributing Communion at Sunday Masses last week, at a parish where very many people kneel at the rail and receive on the tongue (what a blessing), hundreds of Communions, there was precisely zero contact between my fingers and any tongue.  It was more reverent, there was far less risk of profanation, it was faster without being rushed.

Fr. Z is Moderator of the Catholic Online Forum and the ASK FATHER Question Box.

Swine Flu Alert - Now Level Five.

The UN's World Health Organization has raised the alert over swine flu to level five - indicating human-to-human transmission in at least two countries.

It is a "strong signal that a pandemic is imminent", the WHO says.

After Mexico, the US has recorded the next highest number of confirmed cases, with 91.

READ MORE HERE

CONFIRMED CASES

Mexico: 168 suspected deaths - eight confirmed

US: one death, at least 91 confirmed cases

New Zealand: 13 confirmed cases

Canada: 19 confirmed cases

UK: 5 confirmed cases

Spain: 10 confirmed cases

Germany: 3 confirmed cases

Israel, Costa Rica: 2 confirmed cases each

Switzerland, Austria, Peru: 1 confirmed case each