HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS:A NUMBER of people who required hospital treatment due to swine flu have been in intensive care for more than 60 days, a study of the first 205 hospitalised cases of the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus in the Republic has found.
Published last night in the journal Eurosurveillance, the study found that asthma was the most common risk factor among those needing treatment in hospital.
Some 19 of those hospitalised were admitted to intensive care units (ICUs), where the average stay was 24 days. Patients were aged between five months and 78 years, while 75 per cent of those admitted were under 35.
Researchers from the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) found that almost 60 per cent of patients admitted to intensive care with swine flu had a recognised medical risk factor or were pregnant.
Twelve pregnant women with pandemic H1N1 influenza were hospitalised, eleven of whom were admitted due to pandemic H1N1 influenza infection. One was admitted for a pregnancy-related problem.
Three women had risk factors other than pregnancy, including asthma, obesity, liver disease and immunosuppression.
Chronic respiratory disease was the most common risk factor in ICU admissions, followed by chronic neurological disease, asthma and severe obesity.
Compared with other countries, children here were less likely to need hospital treatment.
“The majority of cases in children were associated with residential summer camps, suggesting that it is educational settings that are most likely to result in spread in under 16-year-olds,” the study authors state.