Severely Obese? Please Don't Get the Flu

If there weren't already enough reasons to prevent obesity, now there is another one: obese people are more likely require intensive care and to die when infected with the flu virus than people of normal weight.  Of ten patients with H1N1 flu who were hospitalized in the surgical intensive care unit for acute respiratory distress syndrome in Michigan, nine were obese, and seven were severely obese, according to the MMWR.  Three patients died. 

Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30.  Severe obesity is defined as having a BMI greater than 40.  To illustrate: a 5 foot 6 inch person who weighs 250 pounds has a BMI of 40.3; a 6 foot person who weighs 300 pounds has a BMI of 40.7. 

Even before this report surfaced, the knowledge that being significantly overweight ought to put one at risk for worse illness and death from the flu has was available.  Obese mice are more likely to die when infected with the influenza virus than normal mice, according to Smith et al.   That's not to say that no normal weight mice (or people) would be expected to die if infected with the flu, but the measured difference in mortality rates in Smith's study is really quite striking: a full 42% of obese mice bought the farm when infected with the influenza virus, whereas only 5.5% of normal weight mice died. 

All ten of the critically ill Michigan flu patients had so-called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).  In ARDS, inflammatory mediators called cytokines build up in the lungs, hampering air exchange and reducing oxygen to the body.  When fat cells, called adipocytes, become infected with the influenza A virus, they overproduce a cytokine called IL-6, according to Bouwman et al.    

Previous reports of individual dealths from influenza have failed to comment on the baseline weight status of the victims, while still reporting other underlying health problems such as asthma.  The truth is that severe obesity is an illness, not a lifestyle choice.  People with severe obesity cannot be considered healthy, period.  Now that obesity has been proven to be a serious risk factor for death from flu, infection control efforts should focus on promoting a culture of self-quarrantine when flu-like symptoms appear, immunizing all obese persons against flu, and optimizing usual health, including with weight control. 

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Irene Decker
Posts: 1

obese and flu
Reply #1 on : Fri November 20, 2009, 09:21:03

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why, oh why is the world out to stop us fatties from "buying the farm" (I have never heard that phrase before)???
I do fear that only death will give me rest from all those condescending, despising and moralizing individuals who want to sell me slimming diets and/or are addicted to having someone to look down to?
So PLEASE let nature take its course - I did not take the immunization and now, having read that, will never.

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