Posts Tagged ‘proportion’
Overall flu activity decreased slightly in the United States during the week of December 20-26, 2009, as reported in FluView. The number of states reporting widespread flu activity decreased from 7 to 4. to doctors for influenza-like illness increased, although the proportion of tests for influenza that were positive continued to decline and the overall hospitalization rates for this season were unchanged from the previous week. Flu-associated deaths among all ages increased from the previous week, but fewer deaths in children were reported compared to the prior week (4 versus 9). Flu is unpredictable and activity can rise and fall throughout the season, but flu is likely to continue for months, caused by either 2009 H1N1 viruses or regular seasonal flu viruses.
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UPDATE: Laboratory Confirmed Influenza-Associated Hospitalizations and Deaths from August 30 to December 26, 2009
Overall flu activity decreased slightly in the United States during the week of December 20-26, 2009, as reported in FluView. The number of states reporting widespread flu activity decreased from 7 to 4. to doctors for influenza-like illness increased, although the proportion of tests for influenza that were positive continued to decline and the overall hospitalization rates for this season were unchanged from the previous week. Flu-associated deaths among all ages increased from the previous week, but fewer deaths in children were reported compared to the prior week (4 versus 9). Flu is unpredictable and activity can rise and fall throughout the season, but flu is likely to continue for months, caused by either 2009 H1N1 viruses or regular seasonal flu viruses.
Significant increases in the proportion of hospitalized adults and children being treated with influenza antiviral drugs have been noted during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic compared to the proportion of adults and children that have been treated with flu antiviral drugs during past seasonal influenza epidemics.
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NEW: In The News Question & Answer on Antiviral Usage During the Pandemic
Significant increases in the proportion of hospitalized adults and children being treated with influenza antiviral drugs have been noted during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic compared to the proportion of adults and children that have been treated with flu antiviral drugs during past seasonal influenza epidemics.
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NEW: In The News Question & Answer on Antiviral Usage During the Pandemic
For pregnant women, an influenza vaccination leads to bigger babies and infants who are less likely to get the flu, according to three studies presented here.
Experts said the findings — presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America — might help persuade pregnant women reluctant to get a flu shot.
It might also bring the issue to the attention of obstetricians, who typically do not raise the notion of a flu shot with their patients, said Dr. William Schaffner, infectious disease specialist and chair of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
“This is powerful information for obstetricians and pregnant women to have,” said Schaffner, who moderated a news conference at which the studies were discussed.
The findings are all the more persuasive, he said, because different investigators, using varied methods, “all came out with the same answer.”
The issue is important, according to Dr. Marietta Vazquez, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Yale University School of Medicine, because the proportion of pregnant women who are vaccinated against the flu is “dismal” — fewer than one in four, she and others said.
Vazquez and colleagues conducted a study of infants admitted to their hospital, starting in 2000. Infants with confirmed flu were the cases, and for comparison they each were matched with two babies who were admitted for other reasons.
Proof in the Numbers
The goal of the study is to compare the mothers — using both questionnaires and medical records — to see if they were vaccinated during their pregnancies, Vazquez said.
For the 119 women with complete medical records and an infant with the flu, only 5 percent had been vaccinated, the researchers found. By contrast, of the 172 mothers of control infants, 16 percent had been vaccinated.
The numbers suggested that flu vaccine given to mothers during pregnancy is effective in preventing hospitalization of their infants, Vazquez said.
Specifically, for all nonvaccinated infants, the effectiveness was 80.4 percent.
Vazquez said the results might help persuade more women to get vaccinated. “If they’re not getting vaccinated for themselves,” she said, “maybe they’ll do it for their babies.”
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Flu Vaccine Benefits Moms and Babies
