Increasing numbers of swine flu critically ill challenge hospitals

Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press, has an excellent article previewing the current challenges Manitoba, Canada hospitals are facing with numerous patients on ventilators, struggling to overcome swine flu infections.

Swine flu patients in ICU tough to manage, 'just really, really sick': doctors

In a typical flu season, the Winnipeg hospitals where Dr. Anand Kumar works might see one, maybe two life-threatening cases of viral pneumonia caused by influenza.

So seeing 10, 15 and more flu patients in those same hospitals' intensive care beds in June is still a shock, suggests Kumar, a critical care specialist who works at three different hospitals in the city.

"You just don't see this many of them," Anand says of the patients, struggling to survive swine flu infections.

"You don't see rows and rows of patients on ventilators because they have respiratory failure, a viral pneumonia kind of thing. It's unusual."

At last count, Manitoba hospitals had 30 respiratory distress patients in the ICU, some confirmed swine flu cases, others for whom tests are still pending.

In most people, swine flu behaves like regular flu - it makes you feel miserable, you head to your bed and in time you recover. But in an as-yet unknown proportion of cases, the virus seems to quickly trigger severe illness.

A report compiled by the World Health Organization said between two and five per cent of confirmed cases require hospitalization. But no one yet knows how big a portion of the iceberg is above water (the confirmed cases) and how much remains submerged (cases that never come to the attention of medical authorities).

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