More on Influenza

Thanks to a surprisingly good TV show called The Doctors devoted entirely to the flu epidemic which I saw this afternoon, and some poking around on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site I think I understand a little better what all the hullaballoo is about. A few days ago I posted a few notes and a chart or two about this current influenza epidemic or pandemic I think they are calling it. The latter simply means it is widespread around the world.

All the previous stuff I copied or wrote seems still to be reasonable but there is some more information that I didn't pick up on right away.

(1) Apparently this H1N1 flu started last spring, when the incidence of usual seasonal flu normally goes down, and almost all of the isolates since then have been this relatively new virus, or really a mutated virus because a lot of older folks have met up with this virus in some form or other in their salad days; and
(2) There has been an increase in the morbidiity and mortality amongst pediatric cases. That means a lot of kids are getting sick and some are dying from this illness, at a time when the normal or seasonal flu does not usually strike. A couple of charts might be helpful. They are from the CDC, which website I recommend. Sorry for the small numbers.

The chart above show the up and down incidence of pneumonia and influenza mortality the the last few years, showing an increase in the winter time and a decrease in the summer time. Note the spike in the winter of 2008, really two years ago as most of the winter of 2009 takes place in the early weeks of the calendar year which is how the above chart is set up. There is a worrisome upward squiggle at the end of the chart corresponding to the off-season increase of deaths. And that is more easily seen in the chart below.

This chart shows the uncommon but still usual number of pediatric deaths reported in this country from 2005 to the present. the problem is that the H1N1 deaths are occuring where there haven't been any for a long time, and the numbers look like they may continue to rise because of the timing and the lack of experience with this organism in the younger population. That is why the folks are getting up on their soapboxes and yelling at the top of their voices: Get vaccinated soon.