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Experts expect fewer swine flu deaths
By KIM THOMAS - The Press
Last updated 05:00 22/08/2009
The swine flu pandemic may mean fewer influenza-related deaths this year.
Health experts say seasonal influenza, which has virtually been replaced by the swine flu strain this winter, kills between 400 and 600 New Zealanders a year, predominantly the elderly.
Swine flu has hit young people and the middle-aged and, when a tally is done this year, it is expected to have claimed the lives of fewer people than seasonal influenza normally does.
Christchurch virologist Lance Jennings said swine flu had been the dominant virus in New Zealand this year.
The country had not experienced the "hard hit" of influenza on the elderly this year that it had in previous years.
It was difficult to get timely information on influenza deaths but swine flu might have killed fewer people than seasonal influenza regularly did, he said.
The swine flu pandemic peaked about three weeks ago and the number of people attending the flu centre dropped.
However, the death of a young, previously healthy woman in Dunedin this month showed that people still needed to be vigilant, Jennings said.
Canterbury District Health Board chief of medicine Alan Pithy said there had been no hospital deaths from influenza this winter.
Usually there were "a handful" of deaths in hospital, usually elderly people.
Swine flu had meant young people were hospitalised instead and they did not have to stay as long as elderly patients with seasonal influenza.
As a result, the hospital had been in red gridlock where there had been no beds available for new patients only a few times this winter, he said.
Last winter, Christchurch Hospital was in gridlock for long periods.
The hospital had improved its systems in recent months and patients were staying for shorter periods.
Ministry of Health director of public health Mark Jacobs said full influenza statistics for this winter would not be published until next year.
More than 800 people needed hospital treatment for influenza this winter, compared with about 470 last year. Fifteen people died from swine flu, Jacobs said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/2776854/Experts-expect-fewer-swine-flu-deaths
By KIM THOMAS - The Press
Last updated 05:00 22/08/2009
The swine flu pandemic may mean fewer influenza-related deaths this year.
Health experts say seasonal influenza, which has virtually been replaced by the swine flu strain this winter, kills between 400 and 600 New Zealanders a year, predominantly the elderly.
Swine flu has hit young people and the middle-aged and, when a tally is done this year, it is expected to have claimed the lives of fewer people than seasonal influenza normally does.
Christchurch virologist Lance Jennings said swine flu had been the dominant virus in New Zealand this year.
The country had not experienced the "hard hit" of influenza on the elderly this year that it had in previous years.
It was difficult to get timely information on influenza deaths but swine flu might have killed fewer people than seasonal influenza regularly did, he said.
The swine flu pandemic peaked about three weeks ago and the number of people attending the flu centre dropped.
However, the death of a young, previously healthy woman in Dunedin this month showed that people still needed to be vigilant, Jennings said.
Canterbury District Health Board chief of medicine Alan Pithy said there had been no hospital deaths from influenza this winter.
Usually there were "a handful" of deaths in hospital, usually elderly people.
Swine flu had meant young people were hospitalised instead and they did not have to stay as long as elderly patients with seasonal influenza.
As a result, the hospital had been in red gridlock where there had been no beds available for new patients only a few times this winter, he said.
Last winter, Christchurch Hospital was in gridlock for long periods.
The hospital had improved its systems in recent months and patients were staying for shorter periods.
Ministry of Health director of public health Mark Jacobs said full influenza statistics for this winter would not be published until next year.
More than 800 people needed hospital treatment for influenza this winter, compared with about 470 last year. Fifteen people died from swine flu, Jacobs said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/2776854/Experts-expect-fewer-swine-flu-deaths