Health officials: Swine flu has killed more than 350 people in US; hospitalization up to 5,500

[Mojorabbit]

Source: Med Broadcast

Health officials: Swine flu has killed more than 350 people in US; hospitalization up to 5,500


Provided by: The Canadian Press
Written by: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA - Health officials say their count of U.S. swine flu deaths has risen to 353 and swine-flu associated hospitalizations have grown to more than 5,500.

The cumulative number of deaths rose from the 302 reported last Friday. Last week, health officials said there have been about 44,000 lab-confirmed illnesses but the government would stop providing such counts. Officials believe more than 1 million Americans have had the infection, but many cases go unreported.

Swine flu has continued to spread, but the number of states with widespread activity has been dropping.

Read more: http://www.medbroadcast.com/channel_health_news_details.asp?news_src=0&news_id=18901&channel_id=1039&relation_id=0

---

It still is early in the pandemic and I am keeping an eye on the numbers. So far not too bad.

[kestrel91316]

1. 350 dead out of about 1 million cases..........that's one in 30,000.

I'm not sounding any alarms. They are gonna have to do better than this to get me to do more than yawn.

[Robb]

7. Cases don't interest me as much as hospitalizations.

"Regular" flu: 36,000 deaths, 200,000 hospitalizations. (.18)

This: 353 deaths, 5,500 hospitalizations. (.07)

Worth more than a yawn, but just a little more. :)

[kestrel91316]

12. Overall mortality of a disease is what matters, and when you look at

the HUGE numbers of flu cases that warrant no professional medical care, let alone hospitalization, this thing still is a lot less deadly than seasonal flu.

[kimmerspixelated]

18. Well put!

But they'd like everyone to run in terrar,terra, terra!

[diamidue]

24. While I do worry about this flu

I also believe that it is a manufactured virus. My biggest concern is that they will force us to take their toxic vaccines. I cannot shake off the feeling that this is more than just big pharma going after money. I wonder if this is meant to be the backdrop to a collapsing economy. An epidemic would shut businesses; stop transportation/trade. Then they could blame the economic collapse on the flu virus. A sick people would also be too weak to take to the streets in anger. This whole thing is just too peculiar, too rushed, too conveniently timed to be a coincidence. Yeah, yeah, call me a conspiracy nut, but something just isn't right here. I no longer trust the three groups that are at the forefront of this pandemic: the military, the pharmaceutical industry and the government. They don't care about our health. Something else is up.

[tavalon]

29. I can't refute this but this virus is acting an awful lot like like an expected behavior

for a natural shift in a natural flu. Maybe they've come up with a manufactured flu that can mimic the behavior of the off the shelf ones but a natural flu for which we have no immunity was coming and has been late in coming. Either way, we've got to mobilize fast and well. It's not going to be fun, whether our government did this to us or Gaia is doing it, we have a fight for our lives coming and getting our ducks in a row during these last two months before the next wave is only prudent.

[regnaD kciN]

2. I have an aquaintance at the CDC...

He's telling people that animal tests they're conducting indicate that the virus will continue to spread in waves, and become much more deadly over the next few months. In other words, it's following the pattern of the 1918-19 pandemic almost to the letter.

We're far from being out of the woods just yet. Wait until we see how it plays out in a year or so.

[kimmerspixelated]

20. Better sanitation, better nutrition(generally)

and more of an informed group of folks that have access to Vit D3 and other major supplements will make whatever happens-SO NOT like 1918!!!

[mamaleah]

46. None of that will conteract our new modern attitude

of going out into public no matter how ill.

How many times have you seen people in malls coughing, sneezing, looking quite unwell or mothers rushing children into bathrooms to puke? Too many people think they are too important to keep their butts at home when sick.

Many people are unable to call into work due to financial constraints and many also abhor the idea of ever calling in sick. Same with kids in school. No one keeps their kids home anymore when ill.

Our modern sanitation cannot keep up with our modern idiocy.

[Swagman]

3. doesn't the ordinary flu kill 1000's every year ?..but these new strains are a worry

[Oregone]

5. How many did it kill last month?

How many were 30?

[Mojorabbit]

10. Yes, and I believe 98 percent are usually the elderly

This flu is killing young people and those in their prime. If they anticipate a thirty percent or more case attack rate and we have had a million infected, this means in the fall we could have 9o million or so cases all at once during the flu season to go. That ought to swamp the health care system if it pans out.

[Hannah Bell]

14. link?

[Mojorabbit]

21. Here ya go

Scientists are still working to creating a vaccine for swine flu. The government has allocated $1 billion to allow for testing of initial pilot doses and to stock up on crucial ingredients of the vaccine. It’s likely an effective swine flu vaccine will be widely available this coming fall, according to experts like Dr. Wendy Keitel, professor of molecular and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine.

Each year, vaccinations are manufactured containing three influenza viruses expected to be prevalent during the flu season. Come fall, one of the three viruses targeted is expected to be swine flu.

Flu, in general, has far too many casualties, Keitel said, calling the numbers—36,000 people killed a year, 90 percent of whom are elderly—unacceptable. One way to lower these numbers it for more people to take the flu seriously.
http://www.examiner.com/x-10873-LA-Health-and-Beauty-Examiner~y2009m5d25-Seasonal-flu-Swine-flus-less-famous-deadlier-cousin

(I found the 98 percent at a govt site but can't find it again . it is there somewhere)

And the expected case attack rate is expected to be thirty to forty percent
The WHO says thirty percent

Swine flu could affect third of world's population, says study

Researchers say swine flu will spread around world within nine months, as UK confirms three more cases

* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 May 2009 16.36 BST


The swine flu virus will infect a third of the world's population if it continues to spread at its current rate, scientists warned today, as three more cases were confirmed in the UK.

In what the journal Science described as the "first quick and dirty analysis" of swine flu, a study by researchers at Imperial College London predicted the virus was likely to cause an epidemic in the northern hemisphere in the autumn.

One of the authors, the epidemiologist and disease modeller Neil Ferguson, who sits on the World Health Organisation's emergency committee for the outbreak, said the virus had "full pandemic potential".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/12/swine-flu-report-pandemic-predicted
and the cdc says
CDC: Swine flu is expected to infect 40 percent of U.S.
Vaccinations urged for citizens when available

By DREW WINCHESTER, [email protected]
POSTED: July 30, 2009

"CDC: Swine flu is expected to infect 40 percent of U.S."


The Centers for Disease Control is predicting the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, will infect 40 percent of the American population over the next two years, and that several hundred thousand could die worldwide during that time if they are not properly vaccinated.
http://www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com/page/content.detail/id/508758.html?nav=5011

[Hannah Bell]

26. i meant a link giving evidence this flu is killing younger people "in their prime,"

without other risk factors, disproportionate to other flus.

that was your claim: "This flu is killing young people and those in their prime."

[Mojorabbit]

33. Look it up yourself

I have looked up plenty of links for you easily found.

[provis99]

36. if you make a factual claim, provide your own damn links.

Otherwise, we'll just assume you're spouting bullshit.

[Mojorabbit]

39. Think what you want

this poster appears in every flu thread stirring shit and has an agenda. It is easy enough to find and I am not in the mood to appease said poster.

[Mojorabbit]

41. I could give a shit what you assume.

Here is your curve.

s of July 31, 2009, 5,514 hospitalizations and 353 deaths (7 deaths in individuals 0-4 years, 56 deaths in individuals 5-24 years, 142 deaths in adults 25-49 years, 96 deaths in adults 50-64 years, 29 deaths in adults age 65 and older, and 23 deaths with unknown age) associated with novel influenza A (H1N1) virus have been identified by CDC and state and local public health departments. The results of tests performed during the current week are summarized in the table below.
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

[Hannah Bell]

45. a link. wouldn't it have been easier to provide it in the first place?

now can you point me to the comparative age-sorted data for previous years?

the only reportable flu deaths i see = pediatric.

last year 88 deaths total, this year 97.

[tavalon]

30. the reason the regular flu is so inefficient in killing is that many if not most of us

have some immunity to most all of the strains. None of us have a bit of immunity to this one, therefore, it may not be any more virulent than the regular flu, but it's host pool to work with is huge and even with regular death tolls they will be substantially higher because far more people will be sick. Infrastructure and the medical community will be strained to the max because so many will be sick, whether they die or not is not the point. If there is no one to truck the food, it doesn't get where it needs to. If there are 100 ventilators at a given hospital and a thousand beds, they will be gone before you know it so everyone will be on their own. Most will do fine but the usual percentage will not be fine.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

52. The claim is usually about 36,000.

[robcon]

4. There's a cottage industry in swine flu alarmism, IMO.

The facts are not nearly as bad as the headline-writers would have us believe.

[JayMusgrove]

6. I have to agree.... and this video will help us all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZddVent5U

[Mojorabbit]

11. And the whole world is in on it. nt

[Hannah Bell]

17. "the world" isn't hyping the swine flu.

[Hannah Bell]

16. oddly enough, some of the same folks cheering the bank bailout.

maybe they hold pharmastock.

[kimmerspixelated]

19. DINGDINGDING!

[Mojorabbit]

23. What is weird to me is

when any one tries to discuss calmly the progression of the pandemic situation we find ourselves in someone comes into the thread and calls the discussion alarmist or panic. As a retired nurse with an interest in emerging infectious diseases finding myself in the midst of the first pandemic that I am old enough to remember, I find it utterly fascinating from a medical point of view.

[Hannah Bell]

25. you're a retired nurse but not old enough to remember previous pandemics?

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/05/swine_flu_lessons_from_past_pa.php

[tavalon]

31. Nursing destroys our bodies at an early age

Many of us have to retire early or we become so disgusted at being treated like the stupid, hired help, when we are actually highly trained that we move on to something less degrading.

[Heddi]

44. best reply!

I'm an RN...critical and acute care, cardiac, etc. etc.

went to a family reunion the other day and some d'bag that is married to my husband's mother (hubby is also an RN) says "So, Heather, you pretty much just take vital signs and put people on bed pans all night, huh heh heh heh". Yeah, that's what I spent 4 years in school to do, asshole. I asked him if he had asked that to the RN's that were saving his sorry ass when he was in the ER a few weeks earlier with TIA symptoms. Of course not, I'm just joking heh heh heh he says. Then he goes on about how OVERPAID we are for "just" wiping butt and taking a blood pressure.

Hubby had to forcibly move me away from this jerk before I said something that would cause a family rift.

But, like you said, we're treated like stupid hired help. God forbid *I* suggest that people wash their hands as a way to prevent spread of disease. Why, if someone on TeeVee says it, they're a goddamn genius. If I say it, oh pshaw, it's just Nurse Heather, Ass Wiper supreme who doesn't know what she's talking about....

[tavalon]

50. Amen, sister!

As a cardiac care nurse, I know you have so much information, it just boggles. As a NICU nurse, I also have very specialized information and actually I can't think of a single area of nursing where the nurses don't carry lifesaving and lifehelping specialized information. I'll admit I also wipe a lot of butts and put on a lot of diapers but hey, babies need that. I actually get laypeople assuming I know every thing about anything. A few years ago, my roommate jumped off the roof and hurt his ankle. They woke me up to tend to him. I found him in the living room, laying on the floor and he asked me if his ankle was broken, I said "Do I look like an xray machine? You need to go to the emergency room!". At that time I had been a labor and delivery nurse for about 15 years so I was quite amused that he wanted my 15 year old ortho advice but he still got the right advice - he had a shattered ankle and was in a cast for quite a while.

Why is your mother married to a guy who doesn't respect the amazing profession of which she was a part? You don't have to answer that. It's rhetorical mostly.

[Mojorabbit]

47. Yes it sure does!

I put in twenty something years and then retired. There are a lot of misconceptions of what one does in our profession which I find on this board too . I don't know why it is, but it surprises me. Most of the people I hang out with are in the medical profession so they all have an idea of what it is like.

[tavalon]

51. As much as I adore what I'm doing, I wonder how much longer I can do it

My 20 year anniversary in the biz is coming up in December. I had to give up my first love, Labor and Delivery because of a neck injury but luckily, the one place I said I never wanted to work - NICU turns out to be the second love of my career and it may even supercede my first love but I worry. On the busy nights, I feel twice my age and I just don't know how much longer I can do it. OTOH, I must have a failure of imagination for I can't think of anything else I would rather do.

[Mojorabbit]

53. I loved it too.

It was the only thing I ever wanted to do. I did a couple of decades and then was dx with MS. I just could not keep up the pace after a few years. It seemed staffing got tighter and hours longer. My favorite place to work was ICU. Never got boring.

I dreamed last night I had gone back to work and all the equipment was new and unfamiliar. I spent the night trying to figure out how to thread IV tubing through and immensely intricate machine. Chantix really provides some interesting dreams.

[Mojorabbit]

32. Iwas a young teen in 68

and wasn't following medical news at that age. So yeah I don't remember them.

[Sigh Sister]

43. There is a good website

www.flutrackers.com. Most of the people posting there are in the medical field and are very knowledgeable. It's really not possible to have a serious discussion here about the pandemic.

[Mojorabbit]

48. I like flutrackers and

fluwikie http://www.newfluwiki2.com/frontPage.do. It is near impossible to discuss it here. I rarely lose my temper and here I am today being rude on an internet board which is so not like me.

[mbperrin]

8. 302, 353, 5500, 44000, 1 million.

I'm glad they've stopped providing numbers.

Uh, so who provided these?

Gotta love the mind of a bureaucrat!

[hedgehog]

9. Callous as it seems, the real question isn't how many people are dying,

but who is dying. When have you ever heard of pregnant women dying in a normal flu season? We've come to expect that the very old and very sick die from the flu, but not the young and healthy.

[AngryOldDem]

13. That's why people are so worried.

I've heard several local health officials say that what is so alarming is that this flu seems to be targeting younger age groups. Just this week near Cincinnati a woman in her mid-20s died; her brother, in his early 20s, died about a month ago.

[Hannah Bell]

27. link to stats? because i've not seen a published report of any case where the young person didn't

have other risk factors.

[Mojorabbit]

34. It is on the CDC

website in one of the transcripts of one of their press conferences.

[Hannah Bell]

38. link?

[Mojorabbit]

40. Google it.

or go troll another thread. I am off to a pool party.

[Hannah Bell]

42. i see. can't support your claim. it's not trolling to ask for documentation of a claim, btw.

nor do i care if you're going to a pool party or the queen's ball.

[Mojorabbit]

49. I apologize for being rude but

I have given you links all up and down this thread and have done so in just about every flu thread that I have posted on in the past year. I am just about tired of it. You do seem to have an agenda and I am not the first one to comment on it.

[Hannah Bell]

55. i asked for a link about a specific claim. you gave me one post of links on other topics.

when i asked for the link on the claim, you told me to google it, etc.

however, you gave the link r/t your claim to another poster. why didn't you just give it to *me*?

now you say *i* have an agenda.

i asked you to back up your statement with a link, & i asked politely.

what you read into it is not *my* problem.

[Hannah Bell]

15. yes, when they have othe risk factors. which from the reports i've

read is the case with this flu as well.

[Mojorabbit]

22. It was running half and half last I looked

Do you have new stats?

[Hannah Bell]

28. i asked you to link me to evidence. you linked me to a bunch of articles on other points.

if you have a link to wherever you got the "half & half," please share.

i'm going from news reports where information about the decedent was included.

i've seen no list of deaths where ages & comorbidities were listed.

[Mojorabbit]

35. As I said before

CDC press conference transcript.

[Hannah Bell]

37. link?

[TankLV]

54. THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

Over 35,000 people DIE EACH YEAR from the "NORMAL" seasonal FLU.

Yet NOBODY seems to scream and yell and PANIC!!!

[Vila Restal]

56. Swine Flu Alert

There is something very wrong with the Swine Flu scare. 
Please educate people and be wary

1.  Only a few hundred people have died and these people
already were health compromised
2.  The news are saying they may have to use the Military to
enforce quarantines and enforce vaccination
3.  Supposedly 1 million Americans are infected based on a
computer model, not reality
4.  The WHO said it would stop tracking suspected cases (Why??
If its such a big deal)
5.  These new vaccines may contain Squalene and other
adjuvants,  Substances that has been suspected in Gulf War
Syndrome and hasn't been approved by FDA to use in humans.
6.  They are rushing these vaccines without adequate testing
7.  Legislation has been passed to give immunity to pharma
companies in case vaccines harm people.
8.  They are saying millions will get the disease,  all based
on computer models!!!

Please listen, this affects all of us, it doesn't matter if
your a Democrat or Republican.  Criticism against govt.
policies during this Swine Flu issue is not an attack on
Obama.  This is not a left/right issue, look beyond partisan
politics. Don't let them tell you if you refuse vaccines you
are endangering others. The economy is in dire straits due to
the actions of the elite power brokers called the
"International Bankers" who really run our economy. 
The bailouts are meant to bailout their wall street friends
and not Main Street America.  The Elites know very well that
Americans will eventually figure out who's robbing them and
revolt.   That is why they may use this swine flu to clamp
down on free speech, and civil rights, and arrest of
dissisents under the guise of public safety.  I guarantee that
seasonal flu cases will be claimed to be "Swine
Flu".   Please do some research and pass it on.

[sofa king]

57. Welcome to DU, Vila Restal

I won't dispute all of the points in your list there, but there is a danger with this strain. It's highly contagious, it doesn't die out in the summer, and the computer predictions--which have proven to be fairly accurate so far--suggest that one out of three people in the world may be exposed to it over the next two years.

If the virus mutates to become more dangerous, while retaining its high rate of contagion, it has the chance to kill a lot of people. That's worth being a little wary.

But that hasn't happened yet and hopefully it won't.

Even if it doesn't, it's still going to be a pain in the ass. If hospitals cannot be respirationally quarantined due to overwhelming numbers of infected patients, then already sick people will be hit with H1N1 at the worst possible time, and it will kill some of them. Plenty more are uninsured and will die at home when they don't have to die. The infection rate this fall may be twice the normal influenza rate, with predictable results for small businesses and the economy at large. Every large organization is going to have to plan on working with reduced staffs, many of them at the same time that they will have to work harder. Most of them don't have a plan and won't.

Oh, and don't play beer pong. I can't tell you how I know that but it turns out to be a great way to spread H1N1.