Flu Drugs Saved Many Swine Flu Victims

indigo girl · Apr 21, 2010

The Associated Press: Flu drugs saved many pregnant swine flu victims

How strange that they are saying in this article that the first US fatatlity, Judy Trennell had some other health problem other than pregnancy. Her husband appeared on Larry King live to say that this was not the case, and CDC admitted in a press conference that her only risk factor was her pregnancy.

The analysis found that only one of the U.S. women who died was treated with flu medicine like Tamiflu within the first two days of symptoms; just four of those who died got treatment within the first four days.
"Early treatment really makes a difference," said Dr. Sonja Rasmussen of the CDC, one of the study's authors.
The study only looked at deaths in 2009, the year the virus first emerged. Deaths that occurred this year were not part of the analysis, and officials don't now how many pregnant women died this year. The first American with swine flu to die was a Texas woman who was days away from giving birth. Judy Trunnell, 33, died after slipping into a coma. Her daughter was delivered by cesarean section and was healthy.
For all of 2009, the researchers tallied 280 women who were treated in intensive care, including the 56 who died.
Like Trunnell, most of the deaths were women who were late in their pregnancy. Among the 30 pregnant women who died in the first four months of the pandemic, 60 percent were in their third trimester.
Also like Trunnell, many of the women had other health problems that made them more susceptible to severe complications: asthma was the most common problem — 44 percent of the pregnant women who died in the first months had asthma; about 39 percent were obese.