Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu has killed 114 children in the U.S. since the outbreak surfaced in April, including 19 reported in the week from Oct. 18 to Oct. 24, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today on its Web site.
The death rate for children rose 20 percent from the 95 children killed by the virus, also known as H1N1 influenza, reported Oct. 23 by the CDC. Swine flu killed 530 people from Aug. 30 to Oct. 24 and accounted for 12,466 hospitalizations, according to the Atlanta-based agency’s Web site. The mortality data come from 28 states.
“We know this is an underestimate,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden at a press briefing today, noting that 36,000 people typically die from flu in a season. He said he hopes more accurate data will be available soon.
H1N1 flu targets young adults and children in greater numbers than other population groups, CDC says. People ages 6 months to 24 years are among the highest priority groups for getting the swine flu vaccine, according to the agency’s guidelines.
“This is very unsettling news for parents, particularly when coupled with the shortage of the vaccine,” said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in New York and a professor of clinical public health and pediatrics at the university’s Mailman School of Public Health. “The situation is much more fluid and uncertain than the government expected and than the public is comfortable with.”
26.6 Million Doses
The U.S. government had 26.6 million doses of swine flu vaccine for delivery as of today, Frieden said. This is 2.4 million to 3.4 million doses short of what the Atlanta-based agency estimated would be available by the end of this month for states to send to local doctors, hospitals and clinics.
States have reported receiving fewer doses of vaccine than they expected. Shortages have generated long lines at public clinics, canceled plans for mass vaccinations and left private physicians questioning when they’ll get a supply for patients.
“We recognize states have real challenges to balance the increasing supply with the large demand,” he said.
Sanofi-Aventis SA has delivered 14.4 million doses to the U.S. as of this week, Wayne Pisano, head of the drugmaker’s vaccine business, said in an interview today. The Paris-based company agreed to sell the U.S. 75 million doses and will deliver the balance by the end of the year, Pisano said.
Novartis AG, the largest U.S. supplier of the H1N1 vaccine, has shipped more than 7.5 million doses and will deliver a further 17 million to 22 million by the end of November, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
President ‘Frustrated’
President Barack Obama is “frustrated” by delays and shortages, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said today. Obama declared swine flu a national emergency on Oct. 24. The CDC’s Frieden said Obama is “deeply concerned.”
“He’s directly involved, briefed regularly and making sure are doing everything we possibly can,” Frieden said.
The U.S. released an additional 234,000 bottles of liquid Tamiflu, depleting the national stockpile of the antiviral produced by Roche Holding AG, Frieden said. The U.S. had already made available 300,000 bottles on Oct. 1 to the states for use in treating patients infected with the H1N1 virus.
Total pediatric deaths from influenza, including those not confirmed as H1N1, rose to 127 since April 26, the CDC reported on its Web site. The 19 deaths of children from confirmed swine flu in the week that ended Oct. 24 was the largest since the flu first surfaced in April. Overall 2,916 Americans have died from influenza and pneumonia and there have been 25,985 hospitalizations reported to the CDC.
Swine flu may have infected as many as 5.7 million people from April through July in an initial wave of the virus that swept across the U.S., researchers at the CDC and Harvard School of Public Health said yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Pat Wechsler in New York at pwechsler@bloomberg.net
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