Severe obesity raises risk of poor H1N1 outcome

Severe obesity makes it almost five times more likely that adults infected with the H1N1 pandemic influenza virus will be ill enough to be hospitalized, and also more likely that they will die under certain conditions, according to new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The finding quantifies for the first time the frequent observation, made during clinical care and confirmed by surveillance data, that obesity has played a greater-than-expected role in H1N1 illnesses and deaths. Writing in the online medical journal Public Library of Science ONE (PLoS ONE), the researchers say that obesity appears to play such a powerful role that it exerts an effect independent of any underlying chronic conditions that patients may have.

The researchers were not able to say how obesity exerted that effect, but an unrelated piece of research may provide some insight. Using a study in mice, University of North Carolina researchers report in the Journal of Immunology that obesity caused by overfeeding seems to impair the immune system’s ability to create the immunologic memory that allows the body to recognize and respond to flu infections.  Go to Source

People who read this also read

• Risk Factors For Severe Outcomes Among Patients Admitted To Hospital With H1N1
  A new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/doi/10.1503/cmaj.091823 of all patients in Canada admitted to hospital for H1N1 in the first five months of the outbreak summarizes the risk factors for a severe outcome (http://www.cmaj.ca). The H1N1 pandemic presents...
• Urban migrants in India risk obesity, diabetes: Study
  People who move from villages to cities to work are more likely to end up obese and suffer from diabetes compared to their siblings who remain behind, a large study in India has found. The study, involving 6,510 participants from north, central and south India, found that half of the migrants had ...
• Parents’ obesity, especially mom’s, tied to kids’ risk
  Having two obese parents may substantially raise a child’s risk of becoming obese, with mom’s weight playing a particularly important role, a new study suggests. UK researchers found that among more than 7,000 2- to 15-year-olds in a national study, those who had two obese parents were 12 times mo...
• Gene linked to obesity and higher Alzheimer’s risk
  A variant of an obesity gene carried by more than a third of the U.S. population also reduces brain volume, raising carriers’ risk of Alzheimer’s disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday. People with a specific variant of the fat mass and obesity gene, or FTO gene, have brain deficits that could m...
• Childhood obesity: A generation at risk
  In her dreams, Danielle Puckett is thin, and life is better. She isn’t haunted by memories of relentless teasing, and she doesn’t struggle to lose weight, only to gain it back. But reality invades the 18-year-old’s dreams, reminding her that she is 385 pounds and fighting high blood pressure, asth...