LANSING – The H1N1 flu virus, the swine flu, is no more deadly than seasonal flu, senators were told, but it will likely result in more deaths because it is so widespread and because there is no general immunity to the disease.
Members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of Community Health were also told state departments have indicated there has been no widespread absenteeism that could be blamed on the flu.
The subcommittee got an update from top state health officials on how the state is managing the outbreak of the flu, which has been spreading quickly, especially among children. “It loves children in congregant situations,” said Greg Holzman, the state’s chief medical officer.
Community Health Director Janet Olszewski said last spring the state and world’s health efforts were aimed at stopping the disease, and now that the flu is a pandemic, is focused on trying to control its spread. Plans that the state originally developed several years to fight the potential spread of the avian flu were revised for this flu strain, she said.
Holzman said because the flu strain is so novel, few individuals have any immunity against it. That helps account in part for the rapidity of its spread, he said.
Compared to the 1918 Spanish Flu, that killed millions of people, the mortality rate for the H1N1 is 0.1 percent, the same as the seasonal flu, Holzman told the subcommittee. The mortality rate for the Spanish Flu was 2.5 percent of those infected.
But because many more people are expected to be afflicted with the flu, there may be more people that die from H1N1 this year, he said. Since September 1, a total of 28 state residents have died from H1N1, including two infants.
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