Swine flu's risk very real for children, study shows

A study published in the Lancet medical journal shows that infants were most at risk in last year’s swine flu outbreak and there was an unexplained preponderance of Bangladeshi and Pakistani child victims.

Last year’s flu pandemic took the lives of 70 children in England, with babies less than a year old the worst affected, according to a recent study.

The analysis, carried out by former chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson and Dr Nabihah Sachedina, his former clinical adviser at Britain’s department of health, also found that death rates among Bangladeshi and Pakistani children were higher than among other ethnic groups.

The authors recommend that those children be given priority—with children who already have underlying health problems—for future vaccinations.

The study, published online by the Lancet, looked at all reported child flu deaths in the nine months between June 2009 and March 2010.

Most of those who died had pre-existing health problems.

Those with chronic neurological diseases, such as cerebral palsy, were especially vulnerable. But one in five was healthy before catching the virus.

Donaldson and his colleague felt the need for a full analysis of the impact on children.

“Following the outset of the pandemic in England in April 2009, we initiated a confidential investigation into all resulting deaths.

This investigation has provided a real-time and comprehensive system of national surveillance.

We aimed to provide important evidence to strengthen clinical and public health policies for children during forthcoming influenza seasons and future pandemics,” they wrote.

The overall death rate in children was six per million. Among white British children, this dropped to four per million, but the mortality rate rose substantially in Bangladeshi children (47 per million) and Pakistani children (36 per million).

The authors emphasised the seriousness of the impact of pandemic flu on children.

“The occurrence of 70 deaths from pandemic influenza A H1N1 in children in one year in England is greater than the number of deaths in children every year from leukaemia and this high childhood mortality was last seen for a single infectious disease (meningococcal) in 2001,” they said.

They could not explain the rise in deaths in certain ethnic groups, though they said that flu outbreaks were concentrated in certain clusters where there are high ethnic populations, though areas with low levels of such population were also hit hard.—