11-13-2009 – Hispanics accounted for more than half of the 95 swine flu-related deaths in Texas in the first six months of the H1N1 pandemic, an analysis by the state health department found.
Hispanics predominate in the state’s southernmost counties, where 28 percent of the H1N1 deaths happened through Oct. 17.
The area “clearly is the hot spot” for the state’s H1N1 deaths, said Dr. Joseph McCormick, regional dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health in Brownsville.
Several physical conditions that are more common among Hispanics have been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as risk factors for H1N1 becoming fatal. They include pregnancy, diabetes and possibly obesity, McCormick said.
Residents in Rio Grande Valley counties are more likely to lack medical insurance and have less access to health care than the average Texan.
“Viruses don’t care whether you’re black or white or whether you’re Hispanic or not,” said Lovell A. Jones, a health disparities researcher who directs the Center for Research on Minority Health at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Latinos, who represent 37 percent of the state’s population, comprised 52 percent of H1N1 deaths — even with 17 percent of victims having an unknown race or ethnicity — so their actual share may be even higher. Hispanics also accounted for nearly two-thirds of intensive care unit admissions for swine flu.
A Mexican boy became the nation’s first H1N1-related death on April 27 when he died at a Houston hospital. The child was initially hospitalized in Brownsville, in the Rio Grande Valley. Then in May, a 33-year-old pregnant Harlingen teacher with underlying health conditions became the first American to die of swine flu. She too was Hispanic.
While 25 percent of Texas’ working-age adults are uninsured, the fraction who lack insurance is far larger in the state’s border counties.
“We were pretty impressed, not in a happy way, by the striking difference along the border,” said Dr. Susan Penfield, who manages the infectious disease control unit for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
State epidemiology officials are working to identify other swine flu trends based on pregnancy, obesity and other conditions, Penfield said.
The overwhelming majority of swine flu deaths — 89 percent — have been among those with underlying health problems. For Hispanics, it’s 92 percent.
Recent school-based immunization efforts near the border pleased McCormick, who said widespread vaccination for the most vulnerable populations is one way to overcome chronic disease, lack of insurance and other obstacles that leave Hispanics bearing the brunt of Texas’ swine flu deaths.
Website: www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6718072.html