New data show young, minorities disproportionately hit by H1N1 in L.A. County

New data released this week indicate H1N1 flu disproportionately struck the young and minorities in Los Angeles County, groups public health officials have vowed to increasingly target for vaccination.

About 55% of patients hospitalized with H1N1 flu in L.A. County were Latino, 130 of 237 patients as of Aug. 3, the most recent data available from the county Department of Public Health. Of the total, 17% were white, 8% black and 4% Asian, records show.

Los Angeles County is 47% Latino, 29% white, 13% Asian and 8% black, according to the most recent census figures.

County public health officials began requiring hospitals to report the age and ethnicity of those hospitalized with H1N1 flu April 24, said Robert Perkins, a department spokesman. After Aug. 3, the department stopped requiring hospitals to report the ethnicity of H1N1 patients. Officials could not explain the change, but said it may have been because of changes in federal reporting requirements.

Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, director of the county’s Public Health Department, said the figures were not surprising given the county’s large Latino population, which skews younger.

He noted that the hospitalizations occurred before the county opened public vaccination clinics in the fall, and that they don’t “necessarily relate to who came forward and who didn’t for vaccinations.”

For instance, the number of blacks hospitalized was in line with the local population, but vaccination figures released Nov. 25 showed only 3% of those vaccinated countywide were black, compared with 44% Latino, 29% Asian and 19% white.

After those figures were released, county leaders devoted an extra $500,000 to public health outreach efforts targeting blacks for H1N1 flu immunizations.

“We’re focusing on getting the word out and doing more and more outreach with the hope that we’ll increase the rate” of blacks getting vaccinated, Fielding said. “The question is whether that translates into immunizations.”

As of Dec. 27, the most recent data available from the Department of Public Health, 2,063 patients had been hospitalized countywide with H1N1 flu and 115 had died.

Fielding said his staff plans to work with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to analyze whether county vaccination clinics had any role in reducing hospitalizations, as well as the number of missed school and work days.

An age breakdown of L.A. County H1N1 hospitalizations showed that, as expected, the strain of flu struck the young and middle-aged more often than senior citizens. About 93% of those hospitalized were younger than 65. About 39% were 18 or younger. Statewide, the same age group comprised 29% of H1N1 patients in intensive care, according to the California Department of Public Health. The median age of intensive care cases was 35, according to state records.

Across California, 1,734 H1N1 patients had been hospitalized with H1N1 flu and 426 had died as of Jan. 2, the most recent data available from the state Department of Public Health.

Of intensive care patients hospitalized with H1N1 flu statewide as of Jan. 2, 43% were Latino; 35% white; 10% Asian; and 8% black, according to state records. California is 42% white, 37% Latino, 12% Asian and 6% black, according to the most recent census.

Next week, state public health officials plan to announce a new vaccination outreach program targeting youths, spokesmen said.

On Monday, officials plan to announce a new program that will allow individuals to text “No Flu” and their ZIP code to a phone number and receive a text message response with the location of a nearby clinic, pharmacy or other provider that has the H1N1 vaccine.

Al Lundeen, a department spokesman, said they are targeting college students and other youths with the text message campaign because, “we know from the demographics that they seem to be more susceptible. This is not the typical flu, which strikes the elderly.”

In recent weeks, H1N1 hospitalizations have decreased, and public health officials have said they believe the flu peaked in late October or early November. But Lundeen cautioned those who have not yet been vaccinated not to have a false sense of security.

“This virus has shown to be unpredictable in almost every way imaginable,” he said, and infections could still increase, particularly among those considered most at risk, such as young children and pregnant women. “We shouldn’t assume we’re out of the woods.”

“The number one thing anyone in California can do to protect themselves and their community is to get vaccinated,” Lundeen said.

L.A. County public health officials have so far declined to release a list of doctors, clinics, hospitals and other providers who received H1N1 flu vaccines, citing privacy concerns.

On Friday, the department released a list of the types of healthcare providers who received vaccines and their share of the county’s 2.5 million vaccines as of Dec. 30. Hospitals and family practices each received about 15%, followed by pediatricians (13%), internal medicine (12%), multispecialty (9.5%) and pharmacies (8.7%).

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Comments

[Tara]

Please don't use the term "minorities" in relation to statistics involving latinos. it's misleading, as they are 47% of the population in L.A. county.

[RabidinL.A.]

I didn't need any study to tell you this. Take into consideration 12 million illegals, completely hygienically ignorant, and you got yourself a roiling, boiling viral and/or bacterial stew. Soap in restrooms in Mexico is non-existent. Doesn't matter, as hardly any of them ever washes their hands, much less cover their mouths when coughing and the world wonders how the swine flu became pandemic. No neurosurgeon required here to figure out why, yet it enrages me that amnesty is being considered for these biological war machines. It all boils down to hygiene. My above observations come from living in Mexicon for 20 years and are based on facts, not racism. The truth hurts...ouch! And now they've just released a new study on grossly contaminated soda machines caused by...you guessed it, not washing hands, much less equipment. Mmm...fecal bacteria in your soda. Let 'em all in so they can kill us, if not from cartel/gang violence then from biological warfare, grr.

[Rev. Og Oggilby]

This is a mystery? The truth is that all the latinos who are NOT citizens tend to band together in large numbers and due to fear they do not assimilate or learn proper hygiene, hence the large % of figures. This is NOT racist but just plain reality. They have not ever been taught and often never had the chance to maintain what we call proper hygiene i.e. when I was running a large scrap yard in So. Calif. we employed many illegals, everyone did and everyone knows it. When we installed their own locker room with showers, they never used it and refused to put used toilet paper IN the toilet they threw it on the floor no matter how much we pleaded. See the problem?

[sandy]

Other studies have confirmed that as with many other conditions, obesity is also a factor: many younger people seriously ill with this flu are obese.

Latinos are far more likely to be obese than whites, including at younger ages; upto 3/4 are obese. Without that element and going ONLY by age we have a totally skewed result. Blacks also tend to be more obese, but also less likely than Latinos to choose to get vaccinated.

If you extrapolated for OTHER health conditions like obesity, you'd find that more obese people across ALL ethic groups are hardest hit.

[elarr gerht]

If you take the white man out of the white person total, as the women have been, then isn't the white male a smaller minority than the women.
I want equality.
I want preferential treatment when applying for work, benefits etc.
I'm bout to burn my jock strap.

[T L Bradley]

This is probably an effort at ethnic cleansing by the government using the n1h1 virus. Definitely a prime example of racism.

[William J. Whiteman]

Who exactly are these so-called "minorities"?

[Ted]

I echo the statements of others here. When you've got a large, hygienically-ignorant illegal population, they're not going to have the brains to get vaccinated. If this pandemic ended up being as big as we were led to believe, we'd probably have ended up unintentionally fixing our illegal alien problem by virtue of them dropping like flies.

[Sharon]

With the H1N1 scare this year and all the vaccine hoopla I went a bit germaphobe and googled how to teach kids about germs at the start of the school year. Found a new program called Germ Smarts for kids and got it for home and for our child’s preschool. It was a bit pricey but has probably saved us hundreds as the kids have not been bringing home every germ on the planet from preschool and we are no longer playing the “pass the germ” game around the house! Simple program but huge difference in staying healthy for everyone.

[Guy]

Of course they do, they do not take care of themselfs.

[Joe H]

I'm not sure if this writer is brainless or not, but the headline makes no sense when it's even stated in the article that, "Los Angeles County is 47% Latino, 29% white, 13% Asian and 8% black, according to the most recent census figures."

[Management Mom]

Does anyone know if the people who came down with H1N1 actually HAD the vaccine? I noticed this trend began several weeks after the huuuuge push to get "minorities" vaccinated on a large scale. Could it be that these cases were caused by the ineffective vaccine itself that was later proven to be weaker than originally supposed?

This has nothing to do with WHO is getting the flu, but WHY?? Any answers?

[m-in-Sacto]

Classic and common case of lazy journalism using the term "minorities" to describe a latino and black situation. By the figures stated in the article, I don't see the Asians falling into this disproportionate category of affliction.