More women dying from Swine Flu than men in Canada: Government

Pregnant women form one per cent of the Canadian population, yet they comprise 5 per cent of all hospitalizations from Swine Flu and 4 per cent of deaths. Government says women bearing brunt of Swine Flu illness and deaths.

Canada’s death toll from Swine Flu now stands at 95 with Ontario and Alberta reporting a total of six deaths in two days between Oct. 27 and Oct. 29 and health department officials report a “striking increase” in flu cases across the nation. “Striking increases in overall influenza activity were reported this week. All indicators were considerably higher this week compared to the previous weeks. There is increased influenza activity across the country, particularly in the West (BC, AB, SK, NT) and in NL,” said the latest government surveillance bulletin. In week 42 – Oct. 18 to Oct. 24 - 175 Canadians were hospitalized, 39 in ICU and there were 9 new deaths. The majority of hospitalizations and ICU admission were in B.C. with 88 people admitted and 21 sent to ICU. During the period, B.C. had three deaths. “This week, 99.7% of the positive influenza A sub-typed specimens were Pandemic (H1N1) 2009,” said the government about the prevalence of Swine Flu in tested cases. “As of October 24, 2009, (there were) a total of 1,779 hospitalized cases including 351 cases admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and 185 cases required ventilation as well as 92 deaths had been reported since the beginning of the pandemic,” the government report noted. The death toll increased by 3 following the tabulation of data for the week. “Numbers of new hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths reported this week were approximately three times higher than last week,” said the report. “The proportion of females affected, the median age and the proportion of cases with underlying medical conditions was still increasing with severity of illness this week,” it said. “While women and men had similar hospitalization rates, more females were admitted to ICU, required ventilation and died compared to men (approximately 60% females vs. 40% for males for all these outcomes). As well, for those with severe outcomes, females had more underlying medical conditions than males; 74.5% vs. 70.4% of ICU admissions and 83.3% vs. 74.1% of deaths. “The national crude hospitalization rate was 5.3 per 100,000 population with the highest rates in children under 15 years of age (12.1 per 100,000). The national crude mortality rate was 0.28 per 100,000 population; those 45 years and older had the highest mortality rate (0.40 per 100,000). ICU admission rate and ventilation rate were also elevated in children under one year of age (3.6 and 3.0 per 100,000, respectively),” said the public health agency of Canada. There were 93 (26.6%) hospitalized pregnant women out of 350 hospitalized women between 15 and 44 years of age for whom the information on pregnancy was available. The median age among all pregnant cases was 28 years (range 16 to 42 years). Pregnant women, who represent 1% of the population in a given year, are presenting with a higher burden of morbidity and mortality: 5% of hospitalized cases and 4% of deaths occurred among pregnant women. However, hospitalized pregnant women were admitted to ICU less frequently (18.3% vs. 29.2%), required ventilation less frequently (5.4% vs. 15.2%) and had less underlying medical conditions (33.3% vs. 57.2%) compared to hospitalized non-pregnant women between 15 and 44 years of age. The main underlying medical conditions reported by hospitalized pregnant women were pulmonary disease (including asthma) (11) and diabetes (5). Four pregnant cases resulted in death and three of these women were in their third trimester (the trimester was unknown for one case). So far, . 12 have died in B.C., Albert had three news deaths to take the total to 12, Saskatchewan 5 death, Manitoba had 7, Ontario had 30, Quebec had 27, Nova Scotia and Nunavut had one each for a total of 95