SHOOT: It's possible that H1N1 will only peak in 2011, steadily bworsening this year, through 2010 before reaching its worst in 2011, and becoming something totally unlike what we'[re encountering now in terms of virulence. This makes sense, because as more people get it, the organism has the opportunity to become a wider variety of nasty, especially as it begins to encounter antibodies and resistance in its massive host population. 500 000 infections is really a fraction of the world population, at 6.7 million million.
Usually influenza is a disease of the upper respiratory tract, affecting the nose and throat. But H1N1 goes deeper, into the lungs.
"This virus really likes the lower respiratory tract. That means this virus is very likely to cause viral pneumonia compared to seasonal influenza," Shindo told a news conference.
"At one point, 50 percent of the available ICU (intensive care unit) beds in the entire city were filled with H1N1 patients," Kumar said in a telephone interview. "We basically maxed out our capacity.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new H1N1 flu is "strikingly different" from seasonal influenza, killing much younger people than ordinary flu and often killing them very fast, World Health Organization officials said on Friday.
A review of studies done during the seven months the virus has been circulating shows it is usually mild, but can cause unusual and severe symptoms in an unlucky few, according to a WHO-sponsored meeting in Washington this week.
"Participants who have managed such cases agreed that the clinical picture in severe cases is strikingly different from the disease pattern seen during epidemics of seasonal influenza," WHO's Dr. Nikki Shindo told the meeting.
The good news is that quick treatment with the antiviral drugs oseltamivir, made by Roche AG under the brand name Tamiflu, and zanamivir, made by GlaxoSmithKline as Relenza, helps a great deal, she said.
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