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Older People With H1N1 More Likely To Die

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Nov 4, 2009 5:09 pm US/Eastern

Older People With H1N1 More Likely To Die

Reporting
Dr. Maria Simbra
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― The H1N1 flu is hitting young people hard. It has been spreading quickly among people younger than 24.

And while it's less likely for older people to catch the illness, the ones who do and get hospitalized are more likely to die – especially those over 50.

Older people are less likely to catch H1N1 flu, because they've built up immunity by being exposed to similar viruses over the decades.

The CDC says less than two in every 100,000 people over 65 get H1N1 flu.

"I know that makes my mom feel a little better, but I think she's still going to get it," says one man walking in a downtown mall.

"I don't worry about it. I got a regular flu shot. When the H1N1 flu vaccine comes out, I'll get one of those too," says another man confidently.

"You still worry but I don't think as much as the younger kids," says a mature woman shopper.

"The older generation won't have to worry as much, because they have an immunity to it more than the younger people do," her husband chimes in.

This pattern does not mean that older people can't get into trouble if they do catch the swine flu.

"Unfortunately the people who have the poorer outcomes are older people," says Dr. Michael Farrell, an internist at Allegheny General Hospital.

In the "Journal of the American Medical Association," an analysis of more than 1,000 hospitalized H1N1 patients in California shows that 11 percent died.

But for hospitalized patients 50 and older, the death rate was 20 percent compared to two percent in those younger than 18.

A third of all of the people admitted to the hospital had no health conditions such as lung disease that would set them up for complications.

"We haven't had a large number of older patients," Dr. Farrell describes. "Mostly we have younger people who get ill enough rapidly enough they end up in intensive care."

Also, a large proportion was obese.

"If you look at obesity in general, it's a risk factor for poorer outcomes from many conditions for which one enters the hospital," explains Dr. Farrell.

Unlike seasonal flu, older people are far less likely than children and young adults to get the H1N1 flu in the first place.

For that reason, this study won't lead the CDC to add healthy older people to the priority list for the H1N1 vaccine.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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