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(NaturalNews) According to a new analysis of cumulative cases of H5N1 released Friday by the World Health Organization (WHO), the virus is claiming a higher number of adolescents and young adults compared to other age groups.
The report, published in WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record, investigated 203 confirmed cases in nine countries from December 2003 to the end of April 2006. Fifty-six percent of the total cases were fatal. The highest death rate was in 10-to-19-year-olds with a 73 percent fatality rate, a trend similar to the Spanish Flu of 1918.
The review also confirmed that people within the adolescent-to-young-adult age range were at a higher risk of contracting the disease in the first place, a fact the authors note may be related to the infected countries having younger populations.
The report warned against drawing too many conclusions from the evidence, as WHO researchers encountered many gaps in information while analyzing the data on bird flu fatalities. Most of the incomplete data resulted from a lack of shared information, prompting the authors to urge countries to share all bird flu data in order to help "collectively defend all countries against a common threat."
"The incomplete nature of the data on exposure makes it difficult to infer a link between age and exposure, and further studies are needed, especially to assess whether younger people or other groups (such as pregnant women) have an increased risk of contracting the infection," the report said.
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