H1N1 Virus Update and Pregnancy

The World Health Organization has declared the H1N1 virus is now at a pandemic stage. This is no news for the medical profession who have simply not been able to call a spade a spade for a while, but I am updating this site since my May 9/09 writing on H1N1. The flu has spread geographically to enough countries that it has reached that definition, and this post is an update from my initial entry. The last pandemic disease was in 1968 when the Hong Kong flu reached that level. This does not mean this flu is becoming worse, but it is not containable in the number of countries it has spread to. Not a big surprise since we are in the transportation age. Nunavut has 143 reported cases at the time of this writing. The risk to pregnant women is being carefully observed however because of the number of spontaneous abortions and health complications resulting in utero. Out of 30 people hospitalized in California, five were pregnant women. In Manitoba, Canada there are six pregnant women on ventilators in hospital with the virus according to the CTV news. This has been similar to previous pandemics, in which pregnant women were affected more severely than non-pregnant women. I would talk to the obstetrician or family doctor, but I would also build up my immune system as much as possible by talking to a naturopath while letting them know of the pregnancy.

Is this a public health emergency? Anytime the health resources in a region become used to the limit or overwhelmed, there is a public health emergency. Bioterrorism, mass illness at a school, mass numbers of injured from a natural disaster, resulting in hospitals being full, not enough personnel, etc. Therefore, in answer to that question, it could prove to be one in specific regions depending on the resources available.

Pandemic Flu Kit