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11. 03. 10. - 12:00

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11. 03. 10. - 12:00

Obesity, youth and pregnancy up risk of swine flu

People who are obese, young and pregnant are more likely than others to get swine flu, according to two doctors at Vienna Medical University’s Institute of Virology.

Monika Redlberger-Fritz and Therese Popow-Kraupp said today (Thurs) in their "Virus and Epidemiological Information" report that a study in New Zealand and Australia had found that people with a body-mass-index (BMI) higher than 35 constituted 28.6 per cent of all swine flu victims whereas they comprised only 5.3 per cent of the population of the two countries.

They added that pregnant women had a much higher chance of developing serious complications after coming down with swine flu than others did. "Pregnant patients with swine flu are 10 times more likely to develop serious complications," they said.

They also noted that 68 per cent of swine flu patients in Mexico, where the disease first broke out last April, had been younger than 40 and 55 per cent had been younger than 30.

The average age of swine flu patients who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and needed oxygen enrichment of their blood (ECMO) was 34, the experts added. Nine per cent had been pregnant and half obese.

Meanwhile, the swine flu pandemic in Austria appears to continue to be winding down. The Health Ministry has reported that 8,100 people got swine flu in Vienna last week, a very slight increase over the previous week.

The ministry reported last month that the swine flu pandemic was subsiding, but it warned it was not yet over.

As of mid-February, a total of 4,015 cases of swine flu confirmed by laboratory tests had occurred in Austria since 27 April 2009, and 276,814 people had been vaccinated against swine flu.

The ministry reported in February that laboratory tests had not found any other flu virus besides the A(H1N1) virus that causes swine flu in any tested patients.

European health experts said in January that Austrians should be given an extra dose of swine flu vaccine.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) recommended that people receive two doses of Baxter’s Celvapan swine flu vaccine – the vaccine used in Austria - rather than just one following examination of the drug.

But the agency warned that its recommendation was not final and said it would ask Baxter for more analyses of immune-system reactions to the vaccine.

Austrian Times

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