By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
November 12, 2009
A lot more people have died from the swine flu so far than health officials previously thought. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says the estimated death toll from the virus is now about 4,000.
The previous estimate put the toll at around 1,000 but health officials have now included deaths caused from complications of the H1N1 virus, according to a report in Wednesday's New York Times. Those deaths include those who succumbed to pneumonia and bacterial infections.
Even quadrupling the death toll, it remains a small fraction of those who have contracted the virus. According to the CDC, "many millions" of U.S. residents have had the H1N1 virus since it arrived on the scene in April.
In its regular flu update Wednesday, the CDC said it had begun to see more cases of "seasonal flu," although most of the flu cases reported so far this season have been the H1N1 type. Forty-eight states reported widespread influenza activity; two, Mississippi and Hawaii, reported only regional influenza activity; the District of Columbia (DC) reported only local influenza activity, according to the CDC.
Hospitalization and deaths associated with any type of influenza were both down in the last week. The number of deaths reported due to Pneumonia and Influenza were well above epidemic levels, as it had been for four weeks previously. In a positive note, the CDC also said the number of pediatric deaths of H1N1 dropped in the last week.
The virus could possibly become more virulent - and fatal - if it were to mutate, but the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat says scientists have not seen any sign of that.
"Influenza viruses change. That's inevitable. Mutations will occur," Schuchat said. "The key part is will we see something in the near future that makes it change markedly to something more severe than what we are seeing or is there a change that would occur to leave the virus to escape the vaccine? Both of those changes are possible. Fortunately, we haven't seen any of those, yet."
Schuchat says ongoing tests show the virus hasn't changed genetically or the immune characteristics.
"The vaccines we are making available are very good matches with the virus," she said.
