Flu this season - who dies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, totally agree with the PP. just to reiterate, everyone in my household has gotten the shot.

I'm just concerned with two toddlers and a pregnant woman in the house.

PP. Good luck! I wish people weren't so damn self-centered...and the imbecile that is wishing for the flu..good lord!

[Anonymous]

OP, I read (in a CBS news article, I think) that most of the people who have died did not get the shot. The strain that is not covered is not making people as ill as the strain that is covered, so many people are still getting ill, but if they had the shot they are getting ill with the less violent strain (for the most part). People who did not get the shot are getting ill with the more violent strain. There will be people dying in both groups, but your likelihood of complications will be greater when facing the more serious strain.

This is my understanding, I am not a PhD scientist or medical doctor, so I could be completely mixing things up.

[Anonymous]

http://news.discovery.com/human/health/second-minn-teen-dies-from-flu.htm

[Anonymous]

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/6-year-old-in-dallas-with-flu-symptoms-dies

[Anonymous]

Underlying health issues are said to be a factor, but it seems as though many perfectly healthy people are dying of the flu. The officials are saying that flu seasons like this one can take as many as 50,000 lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
40% or about 37 have no know health condition.
Since the flu vaccine is 70% affective then you could surmise that about about 12 vaccinated and 25 unvaccinated children die per year on average.

That's not an accurate calculation. You are applying the 70% to the wrong group.

40% of the 92 children have no health conditions (37)
37% of all children are vaccinated so I will assume that 37% of the 37 children have been vaccinated (this is an estimate because they won't say exactly how many were vaccinated) (14)
30% of people that get vaccinated still get the flu... so 30% of 14 is 4.2

So of the 37 children with no health issues 4 were vaccinated and 33 were not. (so that is a a big difference)

Thanks for the correction. I should never do math in a hurry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
40% or about 37 have no know health condition.
Since the flu vaccine is 70% affective then you could surmise that about about 12 vaccinated and 25 unvaccinated children die per year on average.

That's not an accurate calculation. You are applying the 70% to the wrong group.

40% of the 92 children have no health conditions (37)
37% of all children are vaccinated so I will assume that 37% of the 37 children have been vaccinated (this is an estimate because they won't say exactly how many were vaccinated) (14)
30% of people that get vaccinated still get the flu... so 30% of 14 is 4.2

So of the 37 children with no health issues 4 were vaccinated and 33 were not. (so that is a a big difference)

Thanks for the correction. I should never do math in a hurry.

No, because vaccination effectiveness (the 70%) is effectiveness against not getting the flu. But even if you get the flu after having the flu shot you get a more mild case. I'm guessing that more mild cases are less likely to lead to death. So even once you get the flu, the odds of dying from it are still lower if you got the flu shot. (your calculation assumes that they have the same odds.)

[Anonymous]

Can someone from the medical profession answer this question...

When a otherwise healthy child gets the flu and dies, are the deaths usually preventable? In other words, could the majority of the deaths have been prevented by earlier medical intervention? Or does the flu cause complications in otherwise healthy children that we just can't treat? Let's assume we are talking about kids over the age of about 5 as opposed to infants or very young children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone from the medical profession answer this question...

When a otherwise healthy child gets the flu and dies, are the deaths usually preventable? In other words, could the majority of the deaths have been prevented by earlier medical intervention? Or does the flu cause complications in otherwise healthy children that we just can't treat? Let's assume we are talking about kids over the age of about 5 as opposed to infants or very young children.

They are preventable in that they could have gotten a flu shot.

The answer for if medical intervention after flu onset would have prevented death is complicated because there are many different paths that flu complications take on the way to death. Some of those complications can be treated, and some can not.

[Anonymous]

The articles posted are scary - the six year old died within 24 hours of onset, so it didn't seem to be Pneumonia or anything like that. I would imagine nothing could have been done. What would cause such a quick deterioration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The articles posted are scary - the six year old died within 24 hours of onset, so it didn't seem to be Pneumonia or anything like that. I would imagine nothing could have been done. What would cause such a quick deterioration?

That's just how the flu goes. Both of my kids have had the flu in the past month, and they both had the B strain (despite the shot), but got it 3 weeks apart. They went from absolutely healthy to a fever of 102 within a half hour, for the next 2 days, I couldn't get the fever below 102 even with Tylenol and Advil together. My daughter said her lungs were tight and needed albuterol, and my son developed a rare complication called acute myositis and couldn't walk for 3 days. It hits hard and fast, and it's really scary. 104-105 fevers can cause seizures and other serious situations.

[Anonymous]

PP, did your kids (with Influenza B) take tamiflu?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes 2 o fthe children that died had the flu shot

Can you share where you got that? I would like more raw data.

What would you do with it? Are you capable of understanding the statistics and what risks this flu actually presents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes 2 o fthe children that died had the flu shot

Can you share where you got that? I would like more raw data.

What would you do with it? Are you capable of understanding the statistics and what risks this flu actually presents?

I've already made clear that my family and I all have the shot. I'm not looking to make an anti-vax point. What's the objection to people having more information?

As it turns out, yes, I can handle some statistical data but that aside, the news reports claim to be giving us information and much of it is incomplete or misleading. I hardly expect I'll be less informed after gathering more data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, did your kids (with Influenza B) take tamiflu?

No. My ds was given tamiflu a couple years ago and it caused major hallucinations, so we skipped it this time. Neither kid has underlying health issues.