# 3452
We hear nearly every day how `mild’ most infections with the novel H1N1 `swine flu’ tend to be. And it’s true, for most people, it is no worse than seasonal influenza.
Which if you’ve ever had it, isn’t exactly a walk in the park.
For some small percentage of cases, however, this virus provokes an extreme, and sometimes fatal, illness.
We get a sobering report tonight from Sharon Kirkey. Ignore (if you can) the somewhat nonsensical headline, and follow the link to read this article in its entirety.
Serious flu symptoms can quickly turn into H1N1: experts
Sharon Kirkey
Published: Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Anyone who develops serious flu-like symptoms should seek immediate medical attention, because no one can predict when swine flu will turn life-threatening in otherwise healthy people, infectious disease experts are warning.
Severe cases are occurring, in which the infection starts off like regular seasonal flu, with fever and cough, but then the lungs rapidly become inflamed and stop functioning.
"It looks to most of us like a primary viral pneumonia that deteriorates five or six days into therapy," says Dr. Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. "It's really severe illness."
"If you're young and healthy, you can recover from that severe lung injury. People do. But it takes a very long time," McGeer said. "Sometimes we're talking about a month, five weeks on a ventilator before you are breathing on your own. Some people can be left with so much residual lung damage, they will have abnormal lungs for their lifetime," she said. As well, people who spend a long time in intensive care are at risk of developing kidney failure requiring dialysis.
Scientists are scrambling to understand why otherwise healthy people are becoming seriously ill with swine flu.
