BUSINESS INFORMATION - Half the people who have had died from swine flu are pregnant women or those who have other health problems

BUSINESS INFORMATION - Half the people who have had died from swine flu are pregnant women or those who have other health problems, especially diabetes and obesity (overweight), researchers reported on France as reported Reuters.

Although older people seem less likely to become infected, if they are infected with the virus A H1N1, they are more likely to die, said a research team from the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance in St. Maurice, France, Thursday (20 / 8).

Several governments have expressed pregnant women should be targeted first, people who have to undergo immunization when vaccine is available.

Conversely, the study also revealed that children do not experience the attack as hard as feared. "Despite previous reports stated the case of influenza H1N1 outbreaks in 2009 occurred primarily in children, middle age ... death in 343 cases in our analysis is 37 years old," they wrote.

Twelve percent of people who died aged 60 years or more. In contrast, more than 90 percent of deaths from seasonal influenza occurs in people over the age of 65 years.

Several reports have shown a relationship with obesity, but researchers have not got it clear whether obesity itself increases the risk of severe complications of swine influenza H1N1, or whether people who are overweight have other conditions that have not been diagnosed.

Kasua number deaths from H1N1 swine flu is less than 1 percent, about 0.4 percent, the researchers said. Was slightly higher for seasonal influenza but lower than 2 to 3 percent of the estimated number of deaths due 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic.

They also said difficult and dangerous to try to estimate the number of deaths as the plague was spread, in part because of serious cases and deaths reported earlier.

The first report in New York, United States, for example, showed a 0.2 per cent of deaths, they write.

Companies that make vaccines include corporate units AstraZenevca (AZN.L), MedImmune, CSL, GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Novartis AG and Sanofi-Aventis SA.

Production Roche AG and Gilead Sciences Inc., Tamiflu and Relenza from Glaxo, can mengobat influenza, and currently recommended for people who are at high risk of complications or death.