H1N1 World Statistics – October 2, 2009

For the lastest information on the H1N1 World Statistics visit the WHO website.  Here is the direct link to the world statistics for H1N1

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_10_02/en/index.html

Geographic spread of influenza activity

Map timeline

Trend of respiratory diseases activity compared to the previous week

Map timeline

Intensity of acute respiratory diseases in the population

Map timeline

Impact on health care services

Map timeline

Laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 as officially reported to WHO by States Parties to the IHR (2005) as of 27 September 2009

Map of affected countries and deaths

 Previous Posts on Lose Weight Feel Great for H1N1:

• http://www.lose-weight-feel-great.com/2009/08/26/h1n1-world-statistics-august-26-2009/
• http://www.lose-weight-feel-great.com/2009/07/17/h1n1-swine-flu-statistics/
• http://www.lose-weight-feel-great.com/2009/07/16/h1n1-swine-flu-and-obesity-linked/
• http://www.lose-weight-feel-great.com/2009/07/17/h1n1-swine-flu-statistics/
• http://www.lose-weight-feel-great.com/2009/07/13/obese-exposed-as-swine-flu-collides-with-fat-epidemic/

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H1N1 (Swine Flu) Statistics

Swine Flu H1N1 Statistics – shown below are the swine flu statistics (also known as H1N1 from the Center for Disease Control (US) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

NOTE: Verify ALL data with your countries respective disease control center. This data is based on information found on the Internet.

H1N1 Symptoms

The symptoms of novel H1N1 flu virus in people are similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with novel H1N1 flu virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting. The high risk groups for novel H1N1 flu are not known at this time, but it’s possible that they may be the same as for seasonal influenza. People at higher risk of serious complications from seasonal flu include people age 65 years and older, children younger than 5 years old, pregnant women, people of any age with chronic medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease), and people who are immunosuppressed (e.g., taking immunosuppressive medications, infected with HIV).

Emergency Warning Signs

If you become ill and experience any of the following warning signs, seek emergency medical care.

In children, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:

• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish or gray skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

In adults, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Sudden dizziness
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

US Reported Cases of Swine Flu

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/sick.htm

WHO Worldwide H1N1 Stats

Source: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_07_06/en/index.html

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H1N1 – Swine Flu and Obesity Linked

Fight The Flab To Fend Off Swine Flu (H1N1)

15 July 2009 by Debora MacKenzie

AS IF people struggling with obesity did not have enough to worry about, they now face a new health hazard. According to statistics from the US, overweight people appear more likely to die of swine flu (H1N1).

Most of the people who have died from H1N1 swine flu have had an underlying health problem that weakened their ability to fight off the virus. Among the conditions recognised as increasing the risk from flu are hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung obstruction and coronary disease. Now it may be time to add obesity to the list.

Unpublished figures reported at a recent meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, show that of 99 people who died in the early stages of the pandemic in the US, 45 per cent were obese. As only 26 per cent of US adults are obese, this suggests that obesity doubles the risk of getting seriously ill with swine flu (H1N1).

The figures surprised most flu researchers. “In 40 years of studying flu, I have never heard anything about obesity,” says virologist John Oxford of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London. Obesity specialists, however, say it fits with what they have learned in recent years.

The only study looking directly at flu and obesity was done in 2007 by Melinda Beck and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. It was already known that abdominal fat releases a continuous stream of chemicals that trigger inflammation, an immune response normally aimed at killing invading pathogens and infected cells. So Beck’s team wondered what effect this had on flu. They were especially interested, she says, because runaway inflammation, known as a “cytokine storm”, is what kills most flu victims.

Beck and her team found that overfed, obese mice are nearly seven times as likely to die of ordinary flu as genetically identical lean mice (The Journal of Nutrition, vol 137, p 1236).

The researchers also measured immune chemicals in the mice’s blood. Prior to infection, the obese mice had much higher levels of a hormone called leptin than the normal mice. During the initial stages of infection, they had fewer virus-killing cells and chemicals.

Leptin is released by fat cells and, among other things, triggers immune reactions. Beck thinks that obese mice become desensitised to leptin, making their immune system slow to react. “Our experiments suggest the problem is the fat itself.”

As their flu worsened, the obese mice did mount an immune response, but it was “too little too late”, says Beck. It failed to get rid of the virus and eventually triggered a runaway immune response that escalated until it killed the mice – much as the cytokine storm does in people.

We don’t know if the same series of events happen in obese people with swine flu (H1N1), Beck warns. But it is possible that, as in mice, obesity dampens our ability to fight flu by disrupting the immune response, says Jesse Roth, a diabetes specialist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “The resting level of inflammation goes up in obesity,” he says. He suspects that this disrupts the body’s immune response to viruses, making a lethal runaway reaction more likely.

During a flu pandemic, it is more important than ever to tackle obesity, Roth says. “It’s amazing how much obesity-related inflammation you can reverse with just a little diet and exercise.” He says a daily half-hour walk and losing about 5 per cent of body weight if you are overweight is enough to reduce inflammation.

David Fedson, a former flu researcher at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has long proposed using drugs that damp down inflammation, such as statins, fibrates and glitazones, as an additional way of cutting deaths from flu. These drugs are normally prescribed for obesity-related disorders such as high cholesterol and insulin insensitivity.

The new figures on obesity and swine flu strengthen the case for stockpiling the drugs, given that shortages of vaccine and antiviral drugs are likely, Fedson says. “These drugs are safe and cheap, but they are being ignored by pandemic planners.”

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327175.000-fight-the-flab-to-fend-off-swine-flu.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

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Obese Exposed as Swine Flu (H1N1) Collides With Fat Epidemic

As if overweight people didn’t have enough to deal with, new reports from the WHO suggests that the swine flu affects obese people more! Here is a snippet from Bloomburg followed by links to several stories over the net. No doubt this will gain more coverage over the next few months and more so once the peak flu season hits in November.

People infected with the bug who have a body mass index greater than 40, deemed morbidly obese, suffer respiratory complications that are harder to treat and can be fatal.

Resources

• http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a0DakJmBpgrc
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051902609.html
• http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090710/ap_on_he_me/us_med_swine_flu
• http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aPUbdh6sLlb0
• http://www.naturalnews.com/026602_pandemic_swine_flu_health.html (registration required to read the full article)
• http://www.gate2biotech.com/origins-of-the-swine-flu-virus/ (added 7/13/09 @ 2:47pm PST)

Mohamed

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