Washington - The most complete tracking yet of patients hospitalized for swine flu shows that more than half had underlying medical conditions, the US Centres for Disease Control said Tuesday. Still, 45 per cent did not have apparent illnesses - such as asthma - that put them at higher risk for the H1N1 virus, said Dr Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. She said it was unclear how many of those may have been obese, which was not classified as an underlying condition.
The US health agency tracked 1,400 hospitalized and adults and 500 hospitalized children to compile the statistics. Of the adults, some of whom had more than one risk factor, 26 per cent had asthma, 10 per cent had diabetes, 8 per cent had other lung disease, 7.7 per cent had immune problems and 6 per cent were pregnant women.
Most of the children also had underlying health factors, including sickle cell anemia.
There are 9.8 million doses of vaccine for the H1N1 virus available and US states have ordered 5.8 million doses thus far, Schuchat said. The immunizations were first made available last week.
