Michigan-Swine Flu-Since Sept, 53,157 cases, 22 deaths-99% are H1N1-396 hospital cases since Monday



Swine flu deaths, hospitalizations rise dramatically

The number of deaths linked to H1N1 in Michigan has increased by six since Monday, state health officials said Thursday.

“We have had 22 deaths (since Sept. 1), and they range in age from 6 months to 72 years,” said James McCurtis Jr., Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) spokesman, during a phone conference Thursday afternoon.

He noted the six-month old infant that died is the first pediatric death in Michigan that has been connected to H1N1.

Health officials said between April and September, when there had been a first wave of H1N1 cases in Michigan, there had been a total of 10 H1N1-related deaths, which brings the total of H1N1-related deaths so far in 2009 to 32.

McCurtis said MDCH is not releasing specific information about the individuals who have died from H1N1. That policy is there to protect each individual’s privacy and prevent any confusion in the event further investigation shows preliminary information about a given death is not accurate, he said.

Such confusion occurred earlier this week when state health officials reported on Monday that there were 16 confirmed H1N1 deaths, but a 17th death — that of a 7-month-old infant — was being investigated. However, MDCH later issued a statement noting the child did not die, but has recovered and is back at home.

McCurtis said the 6-month-old child that is one of the 22 deaths announced Thursday is not the same child that health officials were investigating early this week.

In addition to an increase in the number of H1N1-related deaths, the number of hospitalizations of individuals in Michigan with flu-related illnesses also has increased since Monday.

While health officials said as of Monday, there have been a total of 396 hospitalizations since Sept. 1, the number of hospitalizations reported on Thursday was 656.

The total number of influenza-like cases around Michigan totaled 189,956 since Sept. 1, McCurtis said. He noted 53,157 of those cases were reported last week alone.

Dr. Gregory Holzman, state chief medical executive, said monitoring done by MDCH has found 99 percent of the flu cases are H1N1.

He said it’s unclear how severe this flu season will be in comparison to previous seasonal flu seasons, as MDCH does not keep track the number of deaths related to the seasonal flu.

It’s also unclear when this flu season will peak, and Holzman said it’s his guess that numbers will peak in the near future, but spike back up before the flu season ends.

“The amount of flu that’s out there at this time of year is quite extensive — you usually don’t see this much flu,” he said, in regard to the number of flu cases that have been reported since the flu season began on Sept. 1.