obese individuals should be classified as being high risk

Being overweight could greatly increase the chances of you suffering from the negative symptoms of the new swine influenza virus according to new medical reports. One survey done on people who ended up in hospital after contracting the swine flu in California made clear that being obese increased the risk factor from the illness in a similar way that heart disease, diabetes and pregnancy did.

Anne Schuchat speaking for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that they had been surprised by the amount of patients who were obese as this was not normal for regular flu viruses. She also noted that therefore obese individuals should be classified as being ‘high risk’ in the event that a swine influenza vaccine is developed. This could enable people with weight problems to get the vaccine before normal weight individuals.

Other high risk groups include pregnant women especially those who are in the later stages of pregnancy, and this is partly because the fetus and womb are known to press on the lower section the lung thus making breathing and coughing harder, as well as possibly putting pressure on the blood flow around the chest area which is also known to occur in very overweight people.

Nevertheless the swine influenza virus is also affecting perfectly healthy men and women and in Missouri a normal healthy 44 year old man succumbed to the virus becoming the seventh person to die from the virus in America.

In California the average age of those in hospital because of the swine influenza virus was 27½ and ¾ of them were female. Out of these eleven of them suffered either from emphysema or asthma, six of them had immuno problems, five suffered from heart disease, five were pregnant, four were diabetics and four were classified as being obese.

Tamiflu and Relenza can both be used by obese individuals to treat swine influenza.