OT..CDC now says 4,000 swine flu deaths in US | Arthritis Information
ATLANTA -- Federal health officials now say that 4,000 or more Americans likely have died from swine flu - about four times the estimate they've been using.
The new, higher figure was first reported by The New York Times. It includes deaths caused by complications related to swine flu, including pneumonia and bacterial infections. Until now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had conservatively put the U.S. swine flu death count at more than 1,000. Officials said this week they're working on an even more accurate calculation.
The CDC says "many millions" of Americans have caught the pandemic flu virus since it first appeared in April.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111123339.htmlThat is more the feelling I am getting seeing this first hand for the first time. Just that the numbers of cases in general are more than the media has been letting on. Our hospital and doctors offices are over whelmed.
Now I do not know if this is true my sister said there were alot of deaths at the nurseing home. I thought older people had immunity? I guess it could be younger people.
Loster have you seen many over sixty individuals with this. How did they handle H1N1?
For my family so far tamiflu works wonders. The boys had full blown fevers for two days and the put them on two doses for five days. One of my nephews also had to take antibiotics. My five year old niece had the cough part for a day when she was put on the tamiflu. She did go onto get 102 fever but it lasted only hours instead of days because she was started on the tamiflu early. My sister is still able to take care of her children because of it. It clears up the cough and stuffy nose almost completely within twenty four hours if started soon enough. Some of us were put on a once a day dose for ten days because we had just started having cough and stuffy nose. Cleared it right up. Good stuff I recommend it. Milly,
I've heard that the cough from H1N1 is very distinctive. Can you describe it?
As far as the numbers being reported.......I'm always cautious of the information because the news media gives such sketchy details about the data. I don't mean to make light of the 4000 deaths, but I wonder just how many of those 4000 are due to regular flu? [It could be that the labs are so overloaded and behind that they're not bothering to test for H1N1 all that much.]
We generally have 36,000 deaths due to garden-variety flu each year. Now add to that the 40,000 deaths estimated for H1N1. That's 76,000 deaths. So one could probably assume that so far things are not that abnormal.
But read this NY Times article, which gives a graph of all deaths in which patients were admitted for "flu-like symptoms." It looks at the weekly pattern for each of the past 8 years. Definitely a spike in the past month or so. [Kids going back to school???? Public awareness???]
Also, check out this assessment tool:
If you haven't had the H1N1 vaccine yet, get an Rx of Tamiflu to keep on hand. Now.
the cough is a deep barking like coughI was under the impression that if a person is hospitalized, then they test to see if it is H1N1. If that is the case, then I would think these numbers are fairly accurate.
I had a student who lost his 6yr old cousin. Child had no previous health problems. Another child on my son's swim team has been in he hospital for the past few days, and is slowly getting worse. Not good...
rocckyd. where i work, they are not testing, only going by symptoms because it is a send out test since i'm pretty rural. The three main symptoms is a sudden rise to a high temp, 103-104, a bad cough, much like a barky, croupy cough, severe body aches. Some people have also presented with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Another classic feature is you feel well one hour and the next, you feel like you are circling the drain.
Sam, regular flu has not hit yet, that will hit towards the end of next month. I'm not sure about other states, but Montana has had no confirmed A or B influenza this year. YET. croupy cough is the best way I can think to descibe it. OK, here's the breakdown for H1N1 in the US [which has about 340 million people]:
M = millions
K = thousands
AGE Reported Hospitalized Deaths
<18 8 M 36 K 540
18-64 12 M 53 K 2900
>64 2 M 9 K 440
Total 22 M 98 K 3900
And that's just what's been reported. How many cases were NOT reported?
My impression was that in the beginning the hospitals were checking to validate H1N1. However, the labs are now overloaded so I'm hearing that if it looks like a duck...........
I understand that Finland has stopped sending specimens to the lab.
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