# 3298
This week’s edition of the WHO (World Health Organization’s) Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) features an breakdown of novel H1N1 cases by age, reported from Mexico between March and the end of May.
It is a long report, so you’ll probably want to follow the link to read it in its entirety. I’ll just pluck a small excerpt, and one chart, to highlight.
To increase readability in this format, I’ve bulleted some items and reparagraphed some of the excerpts.
A hat tip to Ironorehopper on Flutrackers for posting this link.
Human infection with new influenza A (H1N1) virus: Mexico, update, March–May 2009
(click to enlarge)
As of 29 May 2009, a total of 22 184 specimens had been tested using rRT-PCR, of which 5337 (24%) tested positive for new influenza A (H1N1) virus infection.
Of these 5337 laboratory-confirmed cases,
- 41.9% were aged <15 years
- 32.3% were aged 15–29 years
- 23.7% were aged 30–59 years and
- 2.1% were aged >60 years.
Among fatal cases, those who died were generally older:
- 55.7% of deaths occurred among patients aged 30–59 years
- 49% of patients with confirmed infection were female.
Most striking here is the bias of this virus for younger adults and children, with 42% aged 14 years or younger, and 75% under the age of 30.
A disproportionately high number of deaths also appear to be occurring in the 30-59 year age group (23.7% of all cases but 55.7% of fatalities).
Missing from all of this is any breakdown of illness and fatalities by pre-existing conditions, which would be of keen interest.
It is early however, and I would imagine they are still crunching those numbers.
