More Severe Form of H1N1 reported

Remember the book review of "The Great Influenza" that I posted in March 2009? I quoted from that book that in 1918 and 1919 the second wave of the Spanish Flu virus was much more virulent than the first wave. People began dying in huge numbers from lung infections.

Well, the media has been reporting all summer that a new wave of the flu was going to hit this fall when all the kids went back to school. Today a news article made me very afraid. In this article, WHO Warns of Severe Form of H1N1 Virus,
Saturday, August 29, 2009, it says, "Doctors are reporting a severe form of H1N1 that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said Friday."

"Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients hospitalized with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need intensive care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic."


I personally do not think the media is paying enough attention to the possible virulence of the coming wave of the flu. I think they should be warning us about the possibilities of self-quarantining, or the possibilities that the food supply will be disrupted if the pandemic gets severe.

I think we all need to be prepared with food, supplies, etc. in case it gets as bad as 1918-1919. They had so many deaths and so much social disruption that businesses, church meetings, etc. were cancelled. It cannot hurt to be prepared.

You can go back and read more of my posts from March, but here are two paragraphs which I posted from the book "The Great Influenza" on March 19, 2009:

Why did so many people die so quickly? (In 1918-1919)

p. 249, 250-251 Viral pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) explains why so many died in a few days after getting sick. The immune system followed the virus into the lungs and there waged war...the capillaries dilated, pouring out fluid, every kind of white blood cell, antibodies,...into the lung...even more fluid poured into the lung..The cells that line the alveoli were damaged, if they survived the virus itself....More blood flooded the lungs. The body started producing fiberlike connective tissue. Areas of the lung became enmeshed in cell debris, fibrin, collagen, and other materials. Proteins and fluid filled the space between cells. (p. 373 "water-logged lungs")

What killed the others? (In 1918-1919)

p. 251, 257 Of those who did not die of ARDS, the majority died from bacterial pneumonias (normal bacteria from mouth is able to migrate down to lungs because influenza has damaged epithelial tissue in throat) .These were slower moving pneumonias caused by secondary invaders. Bacterial pneumonias developed a week, two weeks, three weeks after someone came down with influenza..Often influenza victims seemed to recover,...then suddenly collapsed again with bacterial pneumonia.

I wonder if this is what the FoxNews article was talking about, and if it is happening again just like in 1918-1919. There is no way to know, because there just isn't enough in-depth media coverage going on. I want to be a fly on the wall in the emergency room and Intensive Care Units, so I can hear if any of those doctors are seeing similarities.