Between Aug. 30 and Nov. 14, 26,315 people were admitted to hospital in the U.S. for Flu and complications such as pneumonia. Now, a director of the CDC says the organization is worried about U.S.-wide spike in pneumonia caused by Swine Flu.
ATLANTA – Pandemic Swine Flu has put people across the U.S. at risk for developing serious pneumococcal disease and the Centers for Disease Control says there is a worrisome spike in the illness across the country.
“Pandemics put us at risk for not just flu problems, but also bacterial pneumonia problems,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general and a director of the CDC, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
One key finding that the CDC relied on was a huge spike in the Denver area where they had triple the normal cases of invasive bacterial pneumonia.
From August 30 – November 14, 2009, 26,315 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations and 1,049 laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated deaths were reported to CDC across the U.S. A significant number of deaths were due to bacterial pneumonia.
In Canada, authorities have already suggested people at risk from complications from Swine Flu should get pneumococcal vaccine. This can be done at the same times as one gets the flu shot. The U.S. worries the pneumonia complications are happening in younger people, unlike most flu seasons when most of those affected are over 65.
“I want to talk a little bit about a worrisome finding that we’ve found with pneumococcal disease. We’re seeing an increase in serious pneumococcal infections around the country,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC in a press conference on Wednesday.
“Flu infections can increase the risk of pneumococcal disease. Pneumococcus is a bacteria that commonly affects the lung or sometimes the bloodstream,” she said.
“In a typical non-pandemic year, most serious pneumococcal infections occur in people 65 and over. In previous pandemics, there has been an increase in pneumococcal infections in younger people,” she said.
“It turns out that in the 2009 pandemic, we are seeing an increase in pneumococcal infections,” she added.
She said the increase is in invasive pneumococcal disease.
“That’s the serious type of disease where the bacteria invades the blood or other internal sites,” she added. “In particular, I want to mention what we’re seeing in the Denver metropolitan area.”
“When they looked at their five year average of how much invasive pneumococcal disease occurs in October, the average for five years is about 20 cases. But in October 2009, they had nearly triple that number. 58 seriouspneumococcal cases,” she said.
“Most of that increase has been in adults under the age of 60. So non-elderly adults 20 to 59. The findings in Denver probably reflect findings that are occurring in other parts of the country where the surveillance hasn’t been as intensive,” she said.
Schuchat said that while the finding is of concern, it also provides an opportunity to prevent death from Swine Flu complications.
“And I think these findings really highlight two things. One, that pandemics put us at risk for not just flu problems, but also bacterial pneumonia problems. And, two, they highlight a really important prevention opportunity,” she said.
“There’s a vaccine for adults to prevent these serious pneumococcal infections. It’s a 23 valiant vaccine, the new pneumo vac. This is a vaccine you pretty much get once as an adult, not every year the way that the flu vaccine works,” she added.
“But only 25% of high risk adults under 65 have gotten that vaccine. Vaccination is the best way to protect against serious pneumococcal infections and we strongly recommend that adults with chronic conditions like diabetes, emphysema, chronic heart, lung, liver, disease take advantage of the pneumococcal vaccine,” she added.
