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WHO alert severe form of H1N1, decline in the south

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Doctors are reporting a severe form of H1N1 flu pandemic that directly attacks the lungs, causing severe illness in healthy people and expensive hospital treatment, said Friday the World Health Organization (WHO).

Some countries are reporting that up to 15 percent of patients infected with the H1N1 strain of needing hospital care, which further complicates the already collapsed health care system, said the agency with an update on the status of the pandemic.

During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, several countries saw a need for intensive care at times of high load on the health services, said WHO.

The preparedness measures need to anticipate this increase in demand for intensive care units, which could be collapsed from a sudden increase in the amount of severe cases of H1N1, said the entity.

Earlier, the UN agency reported that the circulation of the new strain of H1N1 influenza have passed its peak in most the southern hemisphere, even though the area is going through the winter.

WHO also said the new pandemic strain has reached epidemic levels in Japan, marking the early onset of what would a long flu season in the northern hemisphere, while the situation is worse in tropical regions.

In the southern hemisphere, most countries (represented by Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia) seems to have passed its peak of influenza activity, said WHO.

Some other (represented by South Africa and Bolivia) continue to experience high levels of influenza activity, said the UN agency.

H1N1 influenza is now virtually everywhere in the world and was declared a pandemic in June. But as any infectious disease, does not expand in all directions equally and can occur in different communities at different times.

In Japan, the level of flu activity has passed seasonal epidemic threshold, signaling an early start of the annual flu season, said the UN agency in its weekly report on the pandemic.

Although influenza rarely emerges in temperatures warm, the disease continued to expand, at low levels in the northern hemisphere throughout the summer. And even where progress is still flu season, the H1N1 strain is dominant and affects more people than the seasonal virus.

Perhaps most importantly, doctors across the world are reporting a very severe form of the disease, also in young and healthy people, which is strange in the case of seasonal influenza infections, it said.

In these patients, the virus directly infects the lungs, causing severe respiratory distress. Saving these lives depend on intensive care units of highly specialized, usually long and costly stays, he added.

WHO said he is advising the northern hemisphere countries to prepare for the expansion of a second wave of the pandemic.

Every year, seasonal flu infects between 5 and 20 percent of a given population and cause between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths globally.

Since almost nobody has immunity to new virus H1N1, which experts believe will infect more people than usual, up to one third or more of the world population.

Also, unlike seasonal flu which attacks mainly the elderly, the pandemic strain disproportionately affects younger people, so cause more severe disease and deaths among young adults and children seasonal influenza.

People most at risk are pregnant women, people with chronic diseases like asthma or diabetes and some studies also suggest that the obese.

(Editing by Will Dunham Spanish)