By DPA,
Washington : The most complete tracking yet of patients hospitalised for swine flu shows that more than half had underlying medical conditions, the US Centres for Disease Control said Tuesday.
Still, 45 percent did not have apparent illnesses – such as asthma – that put them at higher risk for the H1N1 virus, said Dr Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases. She said it was unclear how many of those may have been obese, which was not classified as an underlying condition.
The US health agency tracked 1,400 hospitalised and adults and 500 hospitalised children to compile the statistics. Of the adults, some of whom had more than one risk factor, 26 percent had asthma, 10 percent had diabetes, eight percent had other lung disease, 7.7 percent had immune problems and six percent were pregnant women.
Most of the children also had underlying health factors, including sickle cell anemia.
There are 9.8 million doses of vaccine for the H1N1 virus available and US states have ordered 5.8 million doses thus far, Schuchat said. The immunisations were first made available last week.