Pandemic Potential: Swine Flu Most Virulent Among Young

June 28, 2009 (LPAC)-- In a new sign of danger from the swine flu pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control acknowledged Friday that of the 3,000 Americans hospitalized so far for the H1N1 virus, the median age was only 19. Of the 127 who died in hospitals, the median age was only 37.

This severity of infection and death among the young is a shocking new warning sign. The 1918 pandemic, which killed 50 to 100 million people, had the highest rates of severe infection and death among 18 to 32-year-olds, as opposed to seasonal flus which usually are most deadly in the elderly. Some infectious disease experts had suspected such a pattern in the current pandemic, and had accused the CDC and World Health Organization of withholding the information.

The CDC also confirmed Friday that the flu has infected more than a million Americans, including about half a million residents of New York City, and is still spreading. The figures were reported in a press conference Friday by Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of respiratory diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The flu has now spread to many areas of the country, Dr. Schuchat noted, and the CDC has heard of outbreaks in 34 summer camps in 16 states.

These are ominous warnings of a serious and deadly pandemic ahead, yet U.S. preparations are seriously deficient, as articles elsewhere on the LPAC website elaborate

Meanwhile, in Argentina, the head of the National Agricultural Health and Quality Service, Jorge Amaya, reported that at several pig farms close to the country's capital, Buenos Aires, that the new H1N1 swine flu virus has been found in approximately one-quarter of the pigs. He stressed that "veterinarians are very worried because humans are infecting the animals." The danger is that the H1N1 virus could recombine in the pigs, which is natural, and emerge as a more deadly strain.

In Thailand, health officials announced the country's first two swine-flu related deaths.