Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Elders and Influenza

Excerpt from: Time Goes By (click for full article)

 

This is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's [CDC] most recent flu map:

 

WHY ELDERS NEED THE FLU VACCINE
The flu can be particularly dangerous – that is, life threatening – to elders because our immune systems do not function as well as they did when we were young and cannot fight the virus as effectively.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging old people to get the flu shot:

”Vaccination is especially important for people 65 years and older because they are at increased risk for complications from flu.”

As Flu Rages, Caregiving Suffers

Excerpt from: The New York Times (click for full article)

 

New data released Friday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscores how vulnerable older adults are to flu and how many are being affected by the current outbreak. In the week ended Jan. 5, the rate of flu-related hospitalizations for people 65 and older was 53.4 per 100,000, more than twice that of another vulnerable group, newborns and children up to 4 years old. Hospitalizations are an indicator of the most serious flu cases.

That’s a big jump from the week before, when the rate of flu-related hospitalizations for people 65 and older stood at 29.3 per 100,000.

Flu cases skyrocket, putting long-term care facilities on alert

Excerpt from: McKnight's (click for full article)

 

With cases of the flu reaching near-epidemic levels in many parts of the country, long-term care operators are on especially high alert.

Between Monday night and Tuesday morning, hospitals throughout the Chicago area, for example, were on bypass status, rerouting ambulances because their emergency rooms were at capacity, due largely to a high number of flu patients. More than 500 people in New York City are seeking emergency room treatment for the flu each day, ABC News reported. And it's not just the country's big cities that are seeing cases skyrocket.

Long-term care facilities are especially at risk during flu outbreaks. Individuals older than 65 account for an estimated 60% of flu-related hospitalizations and 90% of deaths caused by the seasonal flu annually.

Flu season typically peaks in January or February, but the 2012-2013 season began earlier than any season since 2003-2004, according to Tom Skinner, senior public affairs officer for the CDC. The 2003-2004 season was “early and severe,” and this year could follow a similar trajectory, Skinner said in a December call with reporters.

Pregnant Moms’ Flu Linked to Higher Risk of Autism Among Children

Excerpt from: Time Magazine (click for full article)

 

Expectant moms may have one more reason to get a flu shot.

According to the latest research on flu vaccination during pregnancy, following current recommendations for influenza shots may help to lower rates of autism.

In research published in the journal Pediatrics, scientists studied the rates of developmental disorders like autism among nearly 97,000 children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2003. The children’s mothers answered questions about infections they might have had during pregnancy — colds, sinus infections and urinary tract infections, among others. They also reported whether they’d suffered from the flu or had fevers that lasted more than seven days before they gave birth.

When the researchers compared the mothers’ answers to the registry of developmental disorders, they found that moms who fought the flu while expecting had children with double the risk of being diagnosed with autism before their third birthday. Mothers who endured flu-based fevers for seven days or more had triple the likelihood of having kids with autism, and those mothers also had a 60% greater chance of having a child diagnosed with developmental difficulties falling into the more expansive category of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In addition, moms who used antibiotics while pregnant had children with a small increased risk of autism. Infections and antibiotic use can also contribute to low birth weight babies, another risk factor for developmental abnormalities; in a 2011 study, researchers concluded that premature babies who weigh less than 4.5 pounds are five times as likely to be diagnosed with an ASD.

Influenza seemed to be the only infection linked to a higher risk of autism among these mothers’ children; other common infections such as colds and sinus infections during pregnancy did not seem to increase autism among their offspring. While it’s not clear why influenza is so potentially harmful to early development, experts suspect that the fevers associated with flu might be largely responsible, since previous studies show that periods of high fever during pregnancy are associated with birth defects. So bringing down rising body temperatures while expecting is a must, they say, to avoid potentially detrimental effects on a still-growing baby.