Middle-Aged Most Vulnerable For H1N1
366 H1N1-Related Deaths Reported In California
POSTED: 5:00 pm PST December 3, 2009
UPDATED: 6:28 pm PST December 3, 2009

http://www.kcra.com/mostpopular/21802434/detail.html

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Some surprising statistics show that people who have gotten H1N1 in California don't fit the profile of those who have been targeted for the vaccine.

Since April, when the H1N1 outbreak began, 7,300 people have been hospitalized with the flu in California. Of those cases, 366 people have died.

Among those who have died in California, the average age is 42 years old. The average age of those hospitalized with severe cases is 35 years old.

The initial information noted that children were at greatest risk.

Based on information released Thursday, the person who's at greatest risk is a Hispanic man or woman between 35 and 42 years of age who is obese and has lung disease.

Ethnically, 47 percent of H1N1-related fatalities have been Hispanic, 35 percent are white, 8 percent are black and 7 percent are Asian. That's roughly equal to California's racial profile.

What's surprising is that of those people who died as a result of the flu, 85 percent had preexisting medical conditions.

The top risk factor is obesity. More than half the people who died from H1N1 in California were seriously overweight.

After obesity, the other conditions noted in H1N1-related deaths were lung diseases, metabolic diseases and immune disorders.