Critical Illness from Swine Flu Linked to High Mortality Rate in Young People

Chicago, IL (AHN) – Health officials are reporting that critical illness from 2009 influenza A(H1N1) in Mexico occurred among young patients, was associated with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and shock. Further assessments reveal that the disease had a fatality rate of about 40 percent.

Novel 2009 influenza A(H1N1) was first reported in the southwestern United States and Mexico in March 2009. Between March 18 and June 1, 2009, 5,029 cases and 97 documented deaths occurred in Mexico. The population and health care system in Mexico City experienced the first and greatest early burden of critical illness, according to background information in the article.

Guillermo Domínguez-Cherit, M.D. of Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición “Salvador Zubirán,” Mexico City, and colleagues conducted an observational study of critically ill patients at six hospitals in Mexico that treated the majority of such patients with confirmed, probable, or suspected 2009 influenza A(H1N1) between March 24 and June 1, 2009.

Among 899 patients admitted to hospitals with confirmed, probable, or suspected 2009 influenza A(H1N1), 58 became critically ill. The critically ill patients had a median age of 44 years. Officials say those undergoing medical treatment were given antibiotics, and 45 patients were treated with anti-influenza drugs known as neuraminidase inhibitors. Another Fifty-four patients required mechanical ventilation.

“Our analysis of critically ill patients with 2009 influenza A(H1N1) reveals that this disease affected a young patient group,” the authors write. “Fever and respiratory symptoms were harbingers of disease in almost all cases. There was a relatively long period of illness prior to presentation to the hospital, followed by a short period of acute and severe respiratory deterioration.”

By 60 days, 24 of the critically ill patients (41.4 percent) died. Nineteen patients died within the first two weeks after becoming critically ill.

Analysis of the mortality rates reveal patients who died had greater initial severity of illness, abnormally low levels of oxygen in the blood, higher creatinine kinase levels, higher creatinine levels, and ongoing organ dysfunction.

Further reason for those to get vaccinated is that health officials taut early recognition of disease by the consistent symptoms of fever and a respiratory illness combined with prompt medical attention may provide opportunities to mitigate the progression of illness and avoid the mortality rate observed in Mexico.

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