Saturday, September 19, 2009

H1N1 swine flu and kids with cerebral palsy

I've read some posts on other blogs, including Ellen's post at To The Max, about H1N1 swine flu and concerns of how this may affect kids with epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or other neurodevelopmental conditions in the coming months.

The CDC report states that, of the thirty-six (36) pediatric deaths associated with H1N1 in the US in 2009, twenty-four (24) were kids with high-risk medical conditions. Of this high risk group:
"... 92% had neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., developmental delay or cerebral palsy), a finding consistent with the results from a study of influenza-associated mortality during the 2003--04 influenza season."

I've read a bunch of information on this topic and found an interesting article linking low vitamin D with increased flu death risk in kids. Here's a quick quote from the article:
"All of these neurological conditions are associated with childhood Vitamin D deficiency. Exacerbating the problem further, many of these kids take anticonvulsant drugs, which lower Vitamin D levels."

I've written about Vitamin D before, and this research only solidifies our decision to continue to test and supplement our sons Vitamin D3 levels.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for this, Andy. I'll take any information I can get!

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  2. Fascinating info. Good research.

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  3. I read that post as well as one by @SacExaminerMom about making the decision to vaccinate or not. Our son has cerebral palsy and a very rare seizure disorder, so the choice is a non-choice for us... we're vaccinating him.

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  4. Thanks for the comments. Our son is highly allergic to eggs, so we're not planning to vaccinate him for H1N1.

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  5. The h1n1 is a really serious problem and if it combined with the kids with cerebral palsy is even worst so let help this poor kids cause they need us thank you .
    also cerebritis is a terrible sickness get info to treat it .

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