H1N1 remains threat to young, top health officials warn

Today, the chairman of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Emergency Committee said the H1N1 flu pandemic is as severe as influenza pandemics in 1957 and 1968 and remains a threat, especially to healthy young adults.

"This is just as severe as we saw in 1957 and 1968, with one major difference. We are not seeing deaths in the elderly but we are seeing them in a more important group of the population, healthy young adults," Mackenzie said in a rare presentation.

"It is much more severe than people tend to talk about," he told a three-day meeting called to review the way the World Health Organization handled the pandemic.

According to the Reuters article, the official death toll so far from H1N1 is estimated to be 17,700. The 1957 and 1968 pandemics killed around 2 million and 1 million respectively. Seasonal flu kills up to 500,000 a year, 90 percent of them frail elderly people.  The article continued...

"We still have evidence of the pandemic in Asia and in West Africa," he said. "We also want to see what happens in a second wave in the southern hemisphere. We have no idea what will happen and have some concerns.

"I would say, yes, we are still in a pandemic phase 6 ... We cannot lower our guard."

To read the full Reuters article, click here.


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