California flu deaths continue to climb
Influenza claimed 50 more young lives in California this week, proving that a potent virus that arrived a virtual stranger in 2009 has gained the lead role in our winter dance with the disease.
The H1N1 virus — the swine flu bug — is circulating through susceptible groups, especially among a younger generation that often goes without vaccinations and had not been exposed to this strain, health authorities said Friday.
H1N1 has largely replaced last year’s H3N2 strain and has already killed nearly 40 percent more people than last year’s total, even though flu season has yet to reach its peak.
In California, it has claimed the lives of 95 adults younger than 65, and 51 more deaths await confirmation as flu related. That would bring the total to 146 deaths, state epidemiologist Dr. Gil Chavez reported at a Friday news conference. The nine Bay Area counties and Santa Cruz County have reported 32 flu-related deaths this season.
That’s a pattern similar to what was seen when H1N1 last circled the globe.
“The elderly, like in 2009, are not overwhelmingly getting infected,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “They are seemingly protected from it.”
In contrast, at this time last year, H3N2 dominated and killed many elders — but only nine deaths were reported among Californians under 65.
The state does not track flu deaths for residents over 65, so information about the impact on that age group is mostly anecdotal.
Among this year’s victims were 23-year-old Matthew Walker, of Santa Rosa, a healthy young man who enjoyed windsurfing and skateboarding. The experience of losing a son, his father, Cliff Walker, told NBC Bay Area, was “a ragged roller coaster ride, with a bad ending.”
All but one of this year’s deaths have been linked to the H1N1 virus. Most occurred in Californians who, unlike Walker, had a pre-existing medical condition, such as chronic heart disease, asthma or a suppressed immune system, or were pregnant, according to Chavez.
One of the newly reported deaths was a child who lived in Riverside County. In all, the illness has claimed the lives of three children under age 10, including one in San Mateo County.
Despite such tragedies, the good news is that H1N1 is less deadly than it was during the peak of the 2009 pandemic, and that is because we’re better protected, Fauci said. It is one of the strains included in the current flu vaccine, which usually shields people exposed to the virus. And many who have been sick before have developed antibodies to it.
There are several reasons why younger people seem so vulnerable. Significantly, as a group, they are less likely to be vaccinated than elders.
Some scientists think the genetic structure of H1N1 targets the lungs, while H3N2 tended to attack the upper respiratory system. A mutation in an amino acid called D225G might allow H1N1 to bind more effectively to lung cells, making us more susceptible to pneumonia and death.
And younger people may have not acquired immunity through previous exposure. Forms of the H1N1 virus were detected in the 1930s, then in the mid-1950s and again in 1971, according to flu tracker and biomedical researcher Henry Niman of the Pennsylvania company Recombinomics, Inc. It appeared again — in significantly altered form — in 2009.
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LA Times Local
Dramatic rise in flu deaths reported by California health officials
The Regional Medical Center of San Jose set up a ‘flu tent’ outside an emergency room to treat patients with flu-like symptoms in San Jose. (EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO / January 24, 2014) |
State health officials reported Friday that California influenza deaths this flu season have doubled to 95, with an additional 51 cases likely to be confirmed next week.
That would put this year’s number of flu fatalities so far at 146. At this time last year, nine deaths had been confirmed, and only 106 were confirmed by the end of the season.
“So far we have a much more severe season,” said state epidemiologist Dr. Gil Chavez in a conference call with reporters Friday. He said that flu activity in California remained “widespread.”
In part, the gap between this year’s deaths and the number of deaths at this time last year is because this year’s season struck early, Chavez said.
However, this year’s predominant flu strain is H1N1 “swine flu,” which is more deadly than other strains. Seventy-five of this year’s 95 confirmed deaths were caused by H1N1, Chavez said.
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