Re: States with highest population-based death rates - what's going on out west?
Re: States with highest population-based death rates - what's going on out west?
Living in Kansas, this thread makes me question what is so different about South Dakota when compared to other plains states?
Thus, I started looking at Kansas and several other states neighboring those with high death rates to determine their death rate. I used FluTrackers for the death count and 2008 US Census estimates for the population.
State - deaths - population - deaths/million
Kansas - 21 - 2802134 - 7.5
Nebraska - 7 - 1783432 - 3.9
North Dakota - 2 - 641481 - 3.1
Oklahoma - 38 - 3642361 - 10.4
Idaho - 15 - 1523816 - 9.8
Oregon - 61 - 3790060 - 16.1
After looking at this data in comparison to South Dakota, I have to join JimO in questioning what is going on in South Dakota. Many of their deaths have occurred in the southeast corner of the state (near Iowa) but not all. [see page 6 of weekly summary]
South Dakota week 46 Summary
A Texas study indicates that lack on insurance and/or access to health care may be an issue.
Latinos hard hit by H1N1
Hispanics accounted for more than half of the 95 swine flu-related deaths in Texas in the first six months of the H1N1 pandemic, an analysis by the state health department found.
Hispanics predominate in the state's southernmost counties, where 28 percent of the H1N1 deaths happened through Oct. 17.
The area “clearly is the hot spot” for the state's H1N1 deaths, said Dr. Joseph McCormick, regional dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health in Brownsville.
Several physical conditions that are more common among Hispanics have been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as risk factors for H1N1 becoming fatal. They include pregnancy, diabetes and possibly obesity, McCormick said.
Residents in Rio Grande Valley counties are
more likely to lack medical insurance and have less access to health care than the average Texan.
“Viruses don't care whether you're black or white or whether you're Hispanic or not,” said Lovell A. Jones, a health disparities researcher who directs the Center for Research on Minority Health at Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Latinos, who represent 37 percent of the state's population, comprised 52 percent of H1N1 deaths — even with 17 percent of victims having an unknown race or ethnicity — so their actual share may be even higher. Hispanics also accounted for nearly two-thirds of intensive care unit admissions for swine flu