Study involving 21 Spanish hospitals states 50% of swine flu, ICU patients had no health problems

About half of people admitted to ICU in hospitals for severe complications of influenza A had no risk factor or disease, according to a study conducted in 21 Spanish hospitals.

Study involving 21 Spanish hospitals states 50% of swine flu, ICU patients had no previous health problems

The study, presented on the website of the medical journal ‘Critical Care’ is the largest ever conducted in Europe on influenza cases requiring intensive care. Their findings contradict one of the messages on influenza A released by the Ministry of Health and the Department of Health, which have repeatedly reported that patients with influenza A cases had previous health problems.

The findings contain important messages for both the general population and for health authorities and medical intensivists. For the general population, an appeal to healthy people without risk factors to avoid falling prey to overconfidence in regard to influenza A. Although the vast majority of those affected will overcome the flu without complications, a small percentage will have pneumonia and should be hospitalized.

"The natural symptoms of the disease is usually three or four days of fever, generally over 38 degrees with a steady improvement in the following days. But a minority of patients, around the fourth or fifth day, get worse," reports Jordi Rello , head of the intensive care unit of Tarragona Joan XXIII Hospital and coordinator of the study. Therefore, if a sufferer experiences breathing difficulties after contracting the flu, they should seek medical attention urgently but the main point of the study is that no risk factors or diseases have made them particularly vulnerable.

Looking to health authorities, the study indicates that efforts to contain influenza A should not be limited to prevent disease and to address mild cases in primary care but also to meet serious cases in ICUs. It is estimated that only 0.2% of patients suffer serious complications, according to a calculation based on the experience of Britain. This means that for every million affected, two thousand suffer complications, a figure that may overwhelm the capacity of the ICU departments.

Although the virus primarily affects the lungs, 75% of patients arriving at the ICU in a few days develop multiorgan syndromes. "I had never seen this type of pneumonia in the 25 years I've been practising" says Rello.

The study results confirm that obesity and pregnancy are risk factors for serious complications. The average age of patients in ICU for influenza A is 40 years, of which about 25% die.



Post your comment




News Source © 2009 Barcelona Reporter
Text within the news headline and/or news body may be subject to copyright Barcelona Reporter does not claim copyright to any such text.unless it is written by one of our reporters :
Please refer to the URL-referenced web page (the ‘Article Source’) for further information and details of the original source from the Barcelona Reporter.com web site. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder