Nineteen children died from swine flu last week, CDC says

[beast]

Nineteen more children died from pandemic H1N1 influenza in the week ending Oct. 24, bringing the total to 65 since Aug. 30 and 114 since the beginning of the pandemic in April, according to the newest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two-thirds of those children had underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk for complications, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a morning news conference. In a normal flu season, 40 to 50 children die, so the swine flu clearly is increasing the number of deaths.

Comparable numbers are not available for adults because there are no similar reporting requirements for them. As of Oct. 27, 12,466 laboratory-confirmed hospitalizations for swine flu and 530 deaths had been reported to CDC, but those are likely to be significant underestimates, Frieden said. Estimates released earlier this week suggested that perhaps 800 Americans had died from swine flu by the end of July, and Frieden said that the agency hopes to have real-time estimates for the entire pandemic period available in the next couple of weeks. He said that "many, many millions" of Americans now have been infected.


Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/10/nineteen-children-died-from-swine-flu-last-week-cdc-says.html