Swine (H1N1) Flu Update No

Swine (H1N1) Flu Update No. 3<= /p>

-many authorities are= now altering their concerns to cautious optimism about the original estimates of the seriousness of the H1N1 situation

-as of 6:30 this even= ing H1N1 has affected 286 people in 36 states in the US (as opposed to about 12 peop= le last week); about 1100 people have been affected worldwide in 21 countries<= o:p>

-symptoms and the mor= tality rate now seem to be no worse that those of the usual seasonal flu

-death rate in= Mexico = now also seems to be not as high as originally thought

-H1N1 appears to be a= whole new kind of flu virus than those that cause the usual seasonal flu; it occu= rs occasionally in pigs and those in contact with pigs; what seems so unusual = this time is the rate of transmission from person-to-person

-those affected, inst= ead of coming from the groups of very young and very old now seem to be from the young, healthy adult population; this may be the result of a “cytokine storm,” or an over-exuberant response of the person’s own immune system<= /span>

-the term pandemic= refers to how widespread the infection if, not how severe its symptoms are; i.e., it could be a very mild pandemic

-there are usually ab= out 36,000 deaths/year in the US from the usual seasonal flu; the number of deaths associate with H1N1 infec= tion seem to be similar

-in 1977-18, the virus bounced back later in the season and struck severely; viruses, however, don’t read history books and could bounce back worse, milder, or not = at all

Henry Sanders, MD

Exeter Town Physician

5/4/09