(Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:22:13 -0500)
It is becoming conventional wisdom that the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was not as severe as a bad seasonal flu year. That might be true, although I don’t find it much comfort because a bad seasonal flu year is no less bad for being more familiar. But I am not yet willing to assent to the conventional wisdom yet. I don’t think we have had sufficient time to collate all the information that would enable us to make that kind of judgment, which sometimes takes years to evaluate. However bad it was or wasn’t, the pandemic flu strain could kill you just as dead as any other flu. CDC has just released updated information on the risk factors that seem to make it more likely you will wind up severely ill and hospitalized. It confirms what we knew, that certain pre-existing medical conditions up the risk substantially and some of them are extremely common. The analysis was done for both children and for adults, and there are similarities and differences.
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