Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
26/08/2009
Four Swedes With Flu Complications
At present there are three Swedish patients, all under 30 years of age, being treated at the Karolinska University Hospital, after contracting life threatening complications from Swine Flu A/H1N1.
This means that together with the 30-year old who was transferred to a Danish hospital on Tuesday ? there are four cases so far in Sweden where complications have occurred. According to the hospital they are all being treated with so called ECMO equipment, on an artificial lung.
?There is nothing remarkable about their situation. I mean, they have no lung function and of course that is very life threatening. But as soon as they have treatment their condition is stabilised. You feel fairly OK when you are on ECMO,? said Stefan Engqvist, Chief Medical Officer at Karolinska, to Swedish News Agency TT.
Despite four Swedes already in need of ECMO treatment, before the anticipated outbreak of Swine flu has arrived, Stefan Engqvist does not see this as an indication for what lies ahead. He says that it you can?t make statistics out of 4 cases and that it is impossible to say how the disease will hit Sweden.
From the experience of disease development in other countries there seems to be less people badly afflicted and a lower death rate in A/H1N1 than in normal seasonal flu, Engqvist told TT.
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/Internatio...l.asp?ProgramID=2054&format=1&artikel=3057043
Four Swedes With Flu Complications
At present there are three Swedish patients, all under 30 years of age, being treated at the Karolinska University Hospital, after contracting life threatening complications from Swine Flu A/H1N1.
This means that together with the 30-year old who was transferred to a Danish hospital on Tuesday ? there are four cases so far in Sweden where complications have occurred. According to the hospital they are all being treated with so called ECMO equipment, on an artificial lung.
?There is nothing remarkable about their situation. I mean, they have no lung function and of course that is very life threatening. But as soon as they have treatment their condition is stabilised. You feel fairly OK when you are on ECMO,? said Stefan Engqvist, Chief Medical Officer at Karolinska, to Swedish News Agency TT.
Despite four Swedes already in need of ECMO treatment, before the anticipated outbreak of Swine flu has arrived, Stefan Engqvist does not see this as an indication for what lies ahead. He says that it you can?t make statistics out of 4 cases and that it is impossible to say how the disease will hit Sweden.
From the experience of disease development in other countries there seems to be less people badly afflicted and a lower death rate in A/H1N1 than in normal seasonal flu, Engqvist told TT.
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/Internatio...l.asp?ProgramID=2054&format=1&artikel=3057043
