ATLANTA — Swine flu continues to be most dangerous to kids and
younger adults and is largely bypassing the elderly, according
to the latest and most solid government health information.
Health officials on Tuesday released figures for swine flu
hospitalizations and deaths for the seven weeks since the
beginning of September. The information comes from 28 states. It
showed more than half of all hospitalizations were people 24 and
younger; more than a quarter were ages 5 to 18 years.
“Essentially, this is still a young person's disease,” said Dr.
Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Swine flu deaths were concentrated in young and middle-aged
adults. A third of all deaths were people ages 25 through 49;
another third were 50 to 64. Only 12 percent of deaths occurred
in elderly. That's a stark contrast to the roughly 90 percent of
deaths in the elderly from seasonal flu, Schuchat said at a
Tuesday press conference. “It's almost completely reversed,”
said Schuchat, who heads the CDC's N