Flu patient fights for her life

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A woman fighting for her life in Hawke's Bay Hospital may be the first otherwise healthy New Zealander to become critically ill with swine flu.

The woman, in her early twenties, was diagnosed on Friday and is New Zealand's second critical case.

Authorities are refusing to say whether she had a pre-existing medical condition.

Another woman, 30, has been in a critical but stable condition at Wellington Hospital for more than a week. Existing health problems may have made her case more acute.

New Zealand cases of the virus rose to 653 yesterday, up from 589.

Hawke's Bay District Health Board refused to confirm whether the woman had an underlying medical condition before contracting the virus, like the Wellington patient.

The two women are among a rising number of younger critical cases across the world. More than 300 people have died from swine flu so far.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday raised concerns that swine flu is affecting more young people than seasonal influenza.

Co-author Gerardo Chowell-Puente said nearly 90 per cent of those who had died from the virus had been aged between five and 59, compared with 17 per cent during recent flu seasons.

Governments tended to provide flu vaccines to the very young and very old, but a different strategy might be needed during an influenza pandemic, Dr Chowell-Puente said.

However, Canterbury Health Laboratories virologist Lance Jennings said influenza deaths in younger, otherwise healthy, people did happen.

"Some people are more susceptible than others and we don't fully understand why."

Meanwhile, a Wellington childcare centre has closed until Friday after a staff member contracted swine flu.

TVNZ reported that two other staff members at First Five in Porirua were ill and several children had flu-like symptoms.

Regional Public Health said the centre shut because of a staff shortage.

- The Dominion Post