H1N1 Swine Flu Deaths caused by Obesity

According to shocking new US statistics, overweight people are 50% more likely to die of swine flu.

The majority of the victims that have died from H1N1 swine flu have had an underlying health problem that weakened their ability to fight off the virus. Among the conditions recognised as increasing the risk from flu are; hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung obstruction and coronary disease. Now it is time to add obesity to the list.

Unpublished figures reported at a recent meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, show that of 99 people who died in the early stages of the pandemic in the US, 45 were obese. Arguably, only 26 per cent of US adults are obese, this demonstrates that obesity doubles the risk of a fatality with swine flu.

The figures have shocked and surprised most flu researchers. "In 40 years of studying flu, I have never heard anything about obesity," says virologist John Oxford of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London. Obesity specialists, however, say it fits with what they have learned in recent years.