A number of hospitals have put in place measures to restrict visiting patterns because of the swine flu pandemic.
“On a national level, we recommend that people – particularly children under 14 – should avoid unnecessary hospital visits,” Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, said.
“This is because of the risk of transmission of influenza.”
There have been four additional swine flu deaths this week, an increase from the overall total of 10 last week. Two adult females and one adult male died in the east.
One adult female died in the south. All of the deaths were associated with an underlying illness.
People who are pregnant account for about 16 per cent of all adult swine flu admissions, it has emerged.
Half of these cases occur in women in the third trimester of pregnancy.
“This underscores the importance of vaccination for this group,” Dr Holohan said yesterday.
There is a slight reduction in estimated influenza rates overall, compared to last week, though this is may be due to the midterm break and GPs only working for four days in that week.
The influenza like illness (ILI) rate is 178.5 per 100,000, which is a reduction from last week’s 210.
The rate in children under five years is 383 per 100,000, a reduction from last week. For children between the ages of five and 14, the rate is 365 per 100,000.
The number of confirmed swine flu cases has increased by 467 to 3,443. This is smaller than the previous week’s increase of 539.
The cumulative number of hospitalisations has risen to 665, an increase of 173 hospitalisations on the previous week.
A total of 40 per cent of those hospitalised had an underlying condition. There are still 165 of these people in hospital, which is 56 higher than the previous week.
A total of 54 people have been admitted to intensive care at some point since the pandemic started, an increase of nine on the week. Currently 19 of these remain in ICU. Slightly over 80 per cent of those in ICU had an underlying illness.
By Gary Culliton
About Greg Baxter
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