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H1N1 in Australia and New Zealand

  • 13-11-2009 6:45pm
    #1
    Sitric
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 234 ✭✭


    Hi

    A review of the experience with H1N1 in Australian and New Zealand(ish??) ICU's has been published here http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/361/20/1925

    It's free content so anyone can read

    I don't want to comment too much as I haven't finished reading but the level of admissions to ICU's due to influenza was 15 times higher this winter than the rate of admission in previous years for all causes of pneumonitis, including influenza.


Comments

  • #2
    tallaght01
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,778 ✭✭✭tallaght01


    I wish more people could see this paper. Especially the bit where they show 10% of the ICU patients were pregnant (despite only 1% of the population being pregnant) and 32% of the patient had no predisposing factors. And a big chink of those with predisposing factors only had being very overweight a their risk factor.


  • #3
    Sitric
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 234 ✭✭Sitric


    I agree, it's freely available and not overly technical so it's accessible to anyone who's interested enough to read it.

    For anyone having trouble deciding from reading the newspapers whether this is the new plague or "even milder than the regular flu" it's a good place to start.

    There is also a shorter editorial in the same issue which gives brief synopsis of experiences in the US, Canada, Mexico and in Australia/New Zealand with links to reports from each area.
    It's slightly less alarming but warns against underestimating an "unpredictable virus capable of killing children and young adults in their prime", the most disturbing feature of H1N1 which is highlighted in Figure 2 of the paper above.
    http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/361/20/1991

    With regard to the no's of ICU beds, ventilators etc, what are the numbers like in Ireland?


  • #4
    SomeDose
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 252 ✭✭SomeDose


    tallaght01 wrote: »
    I wish more people could see this paper. Especially the bit where they show 10% of the ICU patients were pregnant (despite only 1% of the population being pregnant) and 32% of the patient had no predisposing factors. And a big chink of those with predisposing factors only had being very overweight a their risk factor.

    As a snapshot, my recent experience of working in ITU would broadly agree: 25% had no underlying illness or predisposing factors, 12.5% were pregnant (some facing very premature delivery), and the remainder being a mixture of haematology, IVDU and obese patient cohorts.


  • #5
    tallaght01
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,778 ✭✭✭tallaght01


    Yea people with haemoglobinopathies seem to be getting hit hard enough for some reason.


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