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Elderly more at risk from new flu: ministry

Published: 15 Sep. 2009, 02:00

An elderly person, wearing an antivirus mask, fills in an application form yesterday at a job fair for senior citizens held in a stadium in Ulsan. [YONHAP]

The nation’s health authorities are bracing against the possibility of the new flu spreading faster among elderly people and people with health conditions since six of the seven people with the A(H1N1) virus who have died have fallen under this “high-risk” category.

People who fall under this more serious classification have a higher chance of dying from the new flu and tend to recover more slowly, according to the health authority.

With autumn approaching, a time when cases of regular flu tend to increase, the Health Ministry is categorizing children aged under five, senior citizens aged 65 or older, pregnant mothers, and people with chronic diseases or low immunity as “high-risk.”

The ministry yesterday released a statement that encouraged people in this high-risk category to refrain from making trips abroad, visiting hospitals and attending meetings with a large number of participants.

Should they show symptoms of a high fever and respiratory problems, they should immediately visit a local hospital and take antiviral medication, the release said.

In addition to the deaths of a 73-year-old woman and a 67-year-old man over the weekend, the health authority said yesterday that a 78-year-old man in Gyeongsang died of septicemia a day after a local hospital confirmed the infection and injected him with Tamiflu.

He made an initial hospital visit last Tuesday after he started experiencing symptoms of the flu - severe fever and stomachache.

The ministry said he made no overseas trips before his diagnosis and had no known contacts with A(H1N1) patients. He was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver due to chronic alcoholism at the time of his death.

Meanwhile, related government ministries are discussing measures to prevent the rapid spread of the epidemic ahead of the Chuseok national holiday when an average of 25 million people will move across the country. Chuseok, Korea’s Thanksgiving, is the nation’s biggest traditional holiday. This year it takes place between Oct. 2 and 4.

Kim Woo-Joo, a professor at Korea University’s medical school, said, “We might see a massive rise in infections during the Chuseok holiday, which makes the turning point of the season [from summer to autumn].”

He said people who think they have symptoms of the flu shouldn’t go on trips during this period and the government should make the public aware of the risks they face when they travel en masse.

Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak warned against “excessive wariness of the flu developing into a panic mood,” according to Blue House spokesman Park Sun-kyoo yesterday.

“The media is paying attention to the number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 infection and its victims,” Lee said, “but we hope that the majority of patients are on a recovery track after being treated.”

By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]