More flu & bacteria

Little addition to my recent flu thoughts. There was a report that came out during the week that noted that many of the people had the 2009 H1N1 flu and died also had bacterial infections. Many of these infections were missed. Doing testing of tissue samples from the deceased, approximately a third tested positive for Streptococcus pneumonia. This information makes me believe that H1N1 may somehow allow the body to be more susceptible to bacterial infections. These secondary infections may be more dangerous than the flu itself. Here is link to summary of report from CDC.

On the positive side. During the normal schedule of immunizations infants are given a vaccine to prevent pneumococcal infections. The streptococcus pneumonia is one of many bacteria that this shot is designed to protect babies against. Nate received the first of these vaccinations at two months. So while he won't be getting the H1N1 vaccine he will have some protection against one of the dangerous potential co-infections that have affected many that have come down with the 2009 H1N1 flu.