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MURRAY -- Should obese young adults be included on the high priority list of people who should be vaccinated against H1N1? Local doctors say from what they saw this past year they would suggest that change be made.
Pregnant women, children and those with lung disease were all identified as high risk when the swine flu started spreading last spring. But Dr. Russ Miller at Intermountain Medical Center says in addition, some other factors kept showing up.
"The heavier the patient, the larger the (body mass index), more commonly that was associated with ICU admission," says Miller.
Miller and other doctors studied the first 47 people at IMC, LDS Medical Center and University of Utah Health Sciences Center to end up in adult intensive care units with H1N1 during the first wave of the outbreak.
The patients studied had an average body mass index (BMI) of 35. A BMI of 40 is considered morbidly obese.
In addition to being overweight, ethnicity also seemed to stand out in the study.
The heavier the patient, the larger the (body mass index), more commonly that was associated with ICU admission.
–Dr. Russ Miller
"Minorities such as Hispanics as well as Pacific Islanders, which includes native Hawaiians, were uniquely susceptible to critical illness due to influenza of the novel influenza type," says Miller.
These individuals were also less likely to be insured, which leads doctors to wonder if a lack of preventative care could play in a role. Dr. Miller says in the cases they studied the cost of treating the patients totaled more than $4 million.
The seasonal flu typically causes the most problems among young children and the elderly, but here in Utah doctors found the hardest hit by H1N1 were young adults between the ages of 15 and 34.
The Utah study, as well as others around the world and some animal studies, will be combined as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decides if changes should be made to the vaccine priority list.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
