Blacks, Hispanics at higher risk for swine flu

Wednesday Oct 7, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Juan Gondales published a news report at New York Daily News pointing readers to an extremely important fact that blacks and Hispanics are more susceptible to swine flu infection and suggesting that vitamin D may be an effective way to prevent the illness, which news media and governments have said will affect half of the population in the United States sooner or later.

There is no doubt H1N1 flu is mild for healthy people. But the virus can be deadly to children with certain healthy conditions. Evidence suggests that people with vitamin D deficiency are particularly vulnerable to swine flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was cited as reporting on Sept 4 that out of the first reported 36 children's deaths from H1N1 and its complications, 33 percent were Hispanics. And of the H1N1 children's deaths that occurred between April and August, 50 percent were African-Americas and Hispanics.

According to the report, the CDC seems to have deliberately omitted a fact in the agency's reports that blacks and Hispanics are at higher risk for H1N1 infection and deaths from the mild flu. When the fatalities had reached 60, the government health agency became reluctant to report the disparity among ethnical groups.

Evidence from a few state reports cited by the newspaper shows that black and Hispanic children are more vulnerable to H1N1 infection and death from the illness.

Chicago's Department of Public Health was cited as reporting that a study of 1,500 lab-confirmed swine flu cases between late April and late July by the state health agency showed that blacks and Hispanics were four times more likely to suffer severe complications from H1N1 and get hospitalized than whites.

In Oklahoma, African-American children were found at three times higher risk of being hospitalized for swine flu than white children and two times higher risk than Native American children.

Veteran Brooklyn pediatrician Dr.Anatoly Belilovsky was cited as saying that many of his Mexican patients in Brooklyn Brighton Beach area are suffering from vitamin d deficiency which lowers the immunity against flu including swine flu.

Two physicians, one from Wisconsin and the other from George, have earlier reported evidence that suggests that vitamin D helps prevent H1N1 flu.

The CDC has said that children at higher risk for swine flu than adults. An interesting fact is that most American teenagers are vitamin d deficient, which could explain why children are at higher risk for the H1N1 infection.

Hispanics and blacks are more likely than whites to suffer from vitamin D deficiency because of their darker skin.

The fact that blacks and Hispanics are at high risk of flu pandemic was also observed between 1916 and 1917 prior to the 1918-1919 pandemic. The good news for blacks and Hispanics is that because they suffered a mild strain of pandemic flu strain, they acquired immunity and when a more virulent flu strain strikes, relatively fewer blacks died from that flu pandemic.

Canada has already indicated that it wants to see if vitamin D can be used as a preventative against the pandemic swine flu or H1N1 infection.

H1N1 virus like many other seasonal flu strains hits the children with health conditions hardest.

Dr. John Cannell, president of Vitamin D Council said in one of his newsletters that two-thirds of the first reported 36 children's deaths had epilepsy, cerebral palsy. Cannell said vitamin D deficiency has been associated with the neurological disorder.

By David Liu davidl at foodconsumer dot org