ICUs strained to limits by swine flu

One-in-four intensive care beds in some hospitals were taken up by swine flu victims at the peak of the pandemic, new research shows.

Auckland City Hospital intensive care specialist Colin McArthur, who co-authored the three-month study, said the virus had "a dramatic effect" on intensive care units (ICUs) at hospitals across Australia and New Zealand.

"Intensive care units specialise in the management of patients with life-threatening illness and the surge of patients with H1N1 influenza placed substantial strain on staff and resources," said Dr McArthur, who also chairs the New Zealand ICU influenza advisory group.

"We were stretched to the very limit of our resources and were at the point where we were considering possible alternatives."

The study, coordinated by the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, shows 722 patients were admitted to ICUs, including 96 in New Zealand.

At the height of the pandemic in July, up to 20 per cent of ICU beds overall were occupied by swine flu patients, and in New Zealand hospitals about 25 per cent of all ICU activity was pandemic-related.

About 12 per cent of Kiwi patients hospitalised with swine flu were admitted to ICU.

Unlike seasonal influenza strains, which tend to hit elderly people and those with severe underlying health problems more heavily, many of those who became critically ill with swine flu were babies and middle-aged people, pregnant women, the obese, Pacific Islanders, Maori and Aboriginal patients.

Rates of severe illness among Pacific people were seven times higher than average, while Maori rates were twice as high.

Overall about one-third of patients admitted to an ICU because of swine flu had no underlying health problems.

"This was very sobering for staff to be attending people much like themselves, adults in peak health who had become critically ill," Dr McArthur said.

The first batch of swine flu vaccine arrived in the country last month.

Currently only frontline health workers are in line to get it, but the Health Ministry is considering advice on widening access to include other "at risk" groups.

COLD HARD FACTS

* 158 swine flu patients were admitted to Wellington Hospital

* 8 admitted to intensive care

* 12 under one year

* 60 aged 1–15

* 20 aged 15–24

* 27 aged 25–44

* 32 aged 45–64

* 7 aged over 65

* 3 people died.

- © Fairfax NZ News