Citiraj:
About 47,000 Americans, thousands more than previously thought,
die each year from flu and another common respiratory virus called RSV, a study shows.
As the elderly population increases, the death toll from these two illnesses could soar, experts fear.
Statistical analyses by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that during the 1990s,
flu killed an average of 36,000 people each year, up from previous estimates of 20,000.
That's just an average, CDC flu expert Keiji Fukuda says.
Deaths vary dramatically from year to year, from very few to as many as 50,000 to 70,000, he says.
In addition, researchers say, 11,000 people, about 78% of them 65 and older, die each year from respiratory syncytial virus, RSV.
It's a disease once thought to affect children primarily.
By contrast, heart disease kills about 700,000 annually and cancer more than half a million.
Last year's West Nile virus epidemic killed 246, and there were 15,000 U.S. AIDS deaths in 2001.
Fukuda, co-author of the report in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, says the main reason for the increase in flu deaths
is the growth of the elderly population. For reasons not clearly understood, older people's immune systems are less able to withstand viral attack,
and the flu vaccine is less effective in preventing infection than it is in younger people.
About 90% of those who die of flu and its complications are 65 or older.
More research is needed to develop a vaccine that is effective against RSV in both children and adults
and to increase knowledge of the aging immune system, Fukuda says.
Meanwhile, wider use of the flu vaccine — especially by those at higher risk of complications, including the elderly
and people of all ages who have chronic illnesses and those who care for them — is the best way to reduce the number of deaths,
says David Morens of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in an accompanying editorial in the journal.
Otherwise, the public health system faces a "confrontation between an unstoppable force and an immovable object,
the aging of the baby boom generation and the predictability of annual influenza," Morens writes.
"Simple demographics practically ensure an impending public health disaster."
Though the CDC advises people at risk of flu complications to be vaccinated by November, it's not too late, Fukuda says.
"This year, flu activity is still pretty low in most areas of the country, and lots of high-risk people are not vaccinated."
Contributing: The Associated Press
Dakle, evo cifre> do 50.000 godisnje umire od komplikacija izazvanih virusom sezonskog gripa (i to samo u USA),
pa niko ni slovca u novinama o tome nije rekao.
Izgleda da je nevolja sezonskog gripa sto nema svoj PR tim k'o ovaj svinjski.
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