Family Life

10.14.09 | FL News Team

A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the H1N1 virus can be fatal even to seemingly healthy people. The study found a majority of Americans who've been killed by the H1N1 flu had underlying conditions. However, 45-percent of H1N1 deaths were among people who seemed healthy. Dr. Anne Schuchat [[ SHOOK-it ]] with the CDC stated that children with sickle cell and other blood related diseases are especially at risk from the virus.

Schuchat said the agency collected data on 14-hundred adults and 500 children who'd been hospitalized by H1N1 in ten states. The most serious cases and deaths involved people under the age of 65. Pregnant women are also in the high risk group because their immune systems are suppressed. Schuchat added the number of children killed by H1N1 in the U.S. has reached 81.

The CDC spokesperson said as of Monday, another nine-point-eight-million doses of H1N1 vaccine were available to healthcare providers and states. About half is the injectable form that can be used by most people. Until now the only vaccine available had been in a nasal spray form only approved for people aged two-to-49 without asthma or other lung conditions.