Study: H1N1 Poses 'Special Threat' to Obese People - H1N1 - FOXNews.com:
"Swine flu can cause severe disease in people of all ages and appears to pose a special threat to those who are obese, according to an analysis of H1N1 cases in California.
Public health researchers analyzed the state's first 1,088 hospitalized and fatal cases of H1N1 infection between April 23 and August 1.
Like other studies, they found the average patient who was hospitalized with H1N1 flu was younger than what is commonly seen with seasonal flu, but they also found severe disease at both ends of the age spectrum.
'What our study shows was that once you were hospitalized, if you were elderly you have a higher risk of dying,' Dr. Janice Louie of the California Department of Public Health in Richmond, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association."
"Swine flu can cause severe disease in people of all ages and appears to pose a special threat to those who are obese, according to an analysis of H1N1 cases in California.
Public health researchers analyzed the state's first 1,088 hospitalized and fatal cases of H1N1 infection between April 23 and August 1.
Like other studies, they found the average patient who was hospitalized with H1N1 flu was younger than what is commonly seen with seasonal flu, but they also found severe disease at both ends of the age spectrum.
'What our study shows was that once you were hospitalized, if you were elderly you have a higher risk of dying,' Dr. Janice Louie of the California Department of Public Health in Richmond, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association."