A "striking" proportion of severe swine flu infections are occurring among young women, according to Canadian research that shows severe H1N1 can hit previously healthy teens and young adults hard and fast in a pattern previously only ever seen with 1918 Spanish flu.
The study shows that severe disease and death in the outbreak is concentrated in relatively healthy young people, aged 10 to 60. Only 30% had serious underlying health problems, such as cancer, chronic kidney failure or medication-dependent diabetes.
"Seventy per cent of them would have said to you, ‘I'm pretty healthy.' I think that's pretty startling, quite frankly," said Dr. Anand Kumar, an intensivist with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and an associate professor of critical care and infectious disease at the University of Manitoba.
The study found that of the 113 women and 55 men admitted to an intensive care unit between April and August, the mean age was 32. Overall, 29 people (17%) died -- most within the first 14 days after becoming critically sick. Twenty-one (72%) of those who died were female.
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Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/swine-flu/story.html?id=2094003 
