CBS News Exclusive: Study Of State Results Finds H1N1 Not As Prevalent As Feared

[kpete]

Source: CBS

(CBS) If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.

In fact, you probably didn’t have flu at all. That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation.

The ramifications of this finding are important. According to the Center for Disease Control, CDC, and Britain's National Health Service, once you have H1N1 flu, you're immune from future outbreaks of the same virus. Those who think they've had H1N1 flu -- but haven't -- might mistakenly presume they're immune. As a result, they might skip taking a vaccine that could help them, and expose themselves to others with H1N1 flu under the mistaken belief they won't catch it. Parents might not keep sick children home from school, mistakenly believing they've already had H1N1 flu.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cbsnews_investigates/main5404829.shtml

[leanderj]

1. There is big money involved

[Bragi]

3. Depend on what you mean by that

I've heard that flu vaccines are actually not a big money-maker. Big Phrama makes its big money by selling patented drugs via doctors in rich countries, not in providing vaccines via the WHO to poor counties at rock-bottom prices.

[Crzyrussell]

7. There is

big money to be made in the US off of this. The participation rate in getting the flu shot is normally low so if they can hype as they have been doing there significant potential for increased profits.

[stray cat]

8. H1N1 has a bank account? Vaccines are seldom the best way to make money

people getting sick is I guess good for hospitials? Tamiflu may be selling well but people are being told to stay home and not even go to the doctors or get a perscription - how does that make money?

[NJmaverick]

9. The Vaccine is being purchased by the US government

and being provided free to local health departments and providers. Local health departments will be providing this vaccine for free while doctors and pharmacies can only charge an administrative cost (up to what Medicare allows for such a procedure). So there is no profit motive in hyping the disease, although it will not stop uninformed people from making that accusation.

[Bragi]

2. This is not actually good news

What this study shows is that a lot of people who may have thought they were immune from H1N1 are not immune, and hence will need the H1N1 vaccine if they wish to be immune.

[Fridays Child]

4. Around here, people aren't being tested when they become ill. They're just being told that it's...

...probably H1N1 and that it would be treated the same as seasonal flu, in any case, so there's no point in testing. Reading this, it seems that, maybe, there IS a point in testing.

[WriteDown]

5. People are getting diagnosed down here with it left and right...

Seems a little odd that this comes out so early in the season.

[still_one]

6. It is too early to tell, but I do know one thing, it is much more lethal in young people /nt

[tanyev]

10. Not sure how you "skip" a vaccine that's essentially unavailable, but duly noted.

[rollingrock]

11. More Americans die from hospital errors in one month alone

than all the people in the world who ever died from swine flu put together.
the threat is totally overhyped.


Study Finds Nearly 200,000 Deaths Annually from Hospital Errors

An average of 195,000 Americans died annually in 2000, 2001 and 2002 because of potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors, according to a study of 37 million patient records conducted by HealthGrades, a healthcare quality company.

The "HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals" looked at the mortality and economic impact of medical errors and injuries that occurred during Medicare hospital admissions nationwide from 2000 to 2002.

The number of deaths was nearly double that found in the 1999 Institute of Medicine study �To Err is Human,� with an associated cost of more than $6 billion per year. At the time the study was issued, the IOM said the rate of in-hospital deaths should be considered a national epidemic.


www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/hospital_errors.html


----------

(CNN) -- More than 1,100 people worldwide have died from swine flu since it emerged in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.

[necso]

12. It's difficult to know

what to make of the data. (Throughout, there seems to have been a lot of guess-work and running this way or that with the data.)

Personally, I tend to attach little or no confidence to anything I've read (heard), at least without other backup. (But I also tend to skew confidence levels to the low-no end of the scale.)

Based on my limited personal experience, I would say: There has been at least one cold-or-flu-like illness (based on the commonly accepted symptoms and "naming" of such*) going around; symptoms became more widespread in recent weeks.

My guess (again, based on my limited personal experience) is that there have been at least two cold-or-flu-like illnesses going around. That is, just because you've caught one, don't think you can't catch another.

*: Which may not be accurate in some particular usage.