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Commentary
H1N1
Death Toll Grows To Five In Venezuela
Recombinomics
Commentary 17:00
March 29, 2011
Women with 33 weeks of gestation, which was sent to a private center of Columbus died Monday in the ICU. The lady was admitted last Saturday night in the emergency room of the Central Hospital.
For their serious health conditions the same was sent to the hospital ICU where she remained until noon Monday when he died. It was known that his death was caused by the severe respiratory presented, which makes it suspicious of the H1N1 virus.
The above translation describes another death in Venezuela, which is likely to be due to H1N1. If confirmed, this would be the fifth confirmed fatality. However, the number of deaths is significantly higher than the confirmed cases and signals a spike in severe and fatal cases in Venezuela.
Mexico has also seen a spike in cases and five deaths, adding to similarities with the start of the pandemic 2 years ago.
The increases in severe and fatal H1N1 case in Venezuela and Mexico raise concerns that a new sub-clade has emerged, which will be poorly recognized by the current vaccine which targets California/7/2009, which was isolated two years ago. Moreover the 2011 vaccine for the southern hemisphere has the same target, as does the 2011/2012 vaccine for the northern hemisphere.
Release of sequences from 2011 isolates from the United States is long overdue, as are sequences from severe and fatal cases in Mexico and Venezuela.
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