WHO experts held a conference call yesterday with Mexican officials to discuss clinical findings in the patients who died from severe swine flu infections, Sylvie Briand, acting director of the WHO's Global Influenza Program, said today at a media briefing. Mexican health officials have identified two high-risk groups: previously healthy young people who deteriorated rapidly with acute pneumonia and people with chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease or tuberculosis. Briand said viral pneumonia has played a role in the deaths, but bacterial pneumonia has been less of a factor, unlike in other pandemics. Authorities have found that causes of death are typically respiratory failure or organ failure.
