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H1N1 Outbreak In Ann Arbor: “These Patients Are Very, Very Ill”

January 2, 2014 7:07 PM

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white space2 H1N1 Outbreak In Ann Arbor: These Patients Are Very, Very Ill

ANN ARBOR (WWJ) – Health officials at University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor say they’re dealing with a severe outbreak of the flu.

A minimum of six people were in the intensive care unit on Thursday, as doctors dealt with what was believed to be multiple cases of H1N1, also know as “Swine Flu.”

According to Dr. Lena Napolitano, director of the University of Michigan’s Surgical Critical Care and Intensive Care units, several  patients — mostly young or middle-aged — are not doing well.

“They are on very advanced life support,” Napolitano told WWJ Newsradio 950.

“There are other intensive care units — our medical ICU, our pediatric ICU — who also have other patients,” she added.” And I don’t have those exact numbers; but suffice it to say, it is a striking increase, and these patients are very, very ill.”

Napolitano said the outbreak reminds her of a similar outbreak of the H1N1 virus in 2009.

Many of the patients, she said, are in kidney failure and on continuous bedside dialysis.

“Most of them are requiring medications because their blood pressures are very low,” Napolitano said. “They’re in septic shock.”