Post by danlirette on Oct 2, 2009 10:44:27 GMT -7
Fox News
By Karlie Pouliot[
A stark reminder about how deadly the new H1N1 virus can be. During a news briefing Thursday, U.S. health officials said the virus has hit pregnant women especially hard.
“The CDC is aware of 100 pregnant women across the country being hospitalized for H1N1 since late April, and out of those 100 – 28 have died,” Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told FOXNews.com
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC said these numbers “are really upsetting” and urged pregnant women to get the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine.
“It’s safe and effective and we think it’s important to get this (H1N1) vaccine out as soon as it’s available,” Schuchat said at the briefing.
H1N1 Vaccine: What You Need to Know
Dr. Manny Alvarez, head of maternal fetal medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., and managing editor of health at FOXNews.com, said there are two fundamental risk factors that pregnant women face when they get the flu.
“First, pregnant woman have an immune system that is slow – it’s like their immune system is on standby – and it’s not as reactive as a non-pregnant person’s,” Alvarez said. “And because of that, viruses, especially flu viruses of any sort can create a very severe infection.”
The second challenge women face is as the baby grows inside the womb, the anatomy of a woman’s chest changes.
“Their whole respiratory volume changes,” Alvarez said. “So if they get a secondary infection, such as pneumonia after the flu, it makes it very challenging and problematic for doctors to get airflow back into the lungs.”
Until now, the CDC has never really looked closely at influenza in pregnant women.
“It’s hard to say if what we’re seeing now is out of the ordinary compared to the how pregnant women have been affected by the seasonal flu,” said Tom Skinner, CDC spokesman. “But what we are hearing from physicians around the country is that they’ve never seen pregnant women impacted like this by the flu… and so we’re going to have to some more research to understand if this is a unique situation to the this new virus.”
Alvarez, who treats high-risk pregnancy patients, said at this time he’s making sure all of his patients know about the dangers of the flu.
“Just yesterday, a patient informed me that her son had the flu, so we immediately began administering antiviral medications, until the new vaccine becomes available.”
Unlike other patients, pregnant women cannot get the nasal spray FluMist, Skinner said.
“They must get the injectable vaccine, which will hopefully be available starting next week,” he added.
By Karlie Pouliot[
A stark reminder about how deadly the new H1N1 virus can be. During a news briefing Thursday, U.S. health officials said the virus has hit pregnant women especially hard.
“The CDC is aware of 100 pregnant women across the country being hospitalized for H1N1 since late April, and out of those 100 – 28 have died,” Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told FOXNews.com
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC said these numbers “are really upsetting” and urged pregnant women to get the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine.
“It’s safe and effective and we think it’s important to get this (H1N1) vaccine out as soon as it’s available,” Schuchat said at the briefing.
H1N1 Vaccine: What You Need to Know
Dr. Manny Alvarez, head of maternal fetal medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., and managing editor of health at FOXNews.com, said there are two fundamental risk factors that pregnant women face when they get the flu.
“First, pregnant woman have an immune system that is slow – it’s like their immune system is on standby – and it’s not as reactive as a non-pregnant person’s,” Alvarez said. “And because of that, viruses, especially flu viruses of any sort can create a very severe infection.”
The second challenge women face is as the baby grows inside the womb, the anatomy of a woman’s chest changes.
“Their whole respiratory volume changes,” Alvarez said. “So if they get a secondary infection, such as pneumonia after the flu, it makes it very challenging and problematic for doctors to get airflow back into the lungs.”
Until now, the CDC has never really looked closely at influenza in pregnant women.
“It’s hard to say if what we’re seeing now is out of the ordinary compared to the how pregnant women have been affected by the seasonal flu,” said Tom Skinner, CDC spokesman. “But what we are hearing from physicians around the country is that they’ve never seen pregnant women impacted like this by the flu… and so we’re going to have to some more research to understand if this is a unique situation to the this new virus.”
Alvarez, who treats high-risk pregnancy patients, said at this time he’s making sure all of his patients know about the dangers of the flu.
“Just yesterday, a patient informed me that her son had the flu, so we immediately began administering antiviral medications, until the new vaccine becomes available.”
Unlike other patients, pregnant women cannot get the nasal spray FluMist, Skinner said.
“They must get the injectable vaccine, which will hopefully be available starting next week,” he added.
Wouldn't believe a word that CDC says. They are purposefully blowing this H1N1 so-called virus up. Thousands get the flu every year and some die. The shot is more dangerous than this bogus flu. Our immune system built up is far better to depend on than this dangerous shot that will do more damage than the flu. It's the after affects that are risky. The first shot may not kill you, but the 2nd or 3rd just might. People have already died from this shot. It's up to you people if you want to trust our government, the U.N., WHO and the rest. The 1918 pandemic was caused by the shot.