October 12, 2009 H1N1 flu hitting children especially hard Play video

(NECN: Brad Puffer, Boston, Mass.) - Several reports indicate the H1N1 (swine) flu is especially dangerous for young people. Now, an upcoming report from the American Medical Association describes a grim scenario for some patients who catch the bug.

The H1N1 vaccine is now becoming available and Dr Shari Nethersole of Children's Hospital is urging parents and her patients to get it.

Dr Shari Nethersole: "It is affecting children. Usually we worry about the seasonal flu affecting the elderly or the very young and this is affecting more school age children."

Now a new study of sick patients to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests young people are most at risk, even healthy children. A four-month study of H1N1 patients in Canada concluded, "critical illness...occurred rapidly after hospital admission, and was associated with severely low levels of oxygen in the blood, multi- system organ failure, a need for prolonged mechanical ventilation, and frequent use of rescue therapies."

Dr Shari Nethersole: "We still do not know everything about it but right now the indication seem to be it is a little more serious."

The Centers for Disease Control has already reported 76 children died from H1N1 in the US. That's about the average each year for seasonal flu. Recently a healthy 14-year-old near Chicago died as well as a 5-year-old in Texas and a third grader in Virginia over the weekend.

But while many

State health officials and pediatricians are working to overcome those fears.

Dr Shari Nethersole: "This is something that has almost no risk, it is a very safe vaccine and has the possibility of significant benefits."