• Jacek Skarbinski, Seema Jain, Anna Bramley, Esther J Lee, Jean Huang, David Kirschke, Allison Stone, Tiffany Wedlake, Shawn M Richards, Shannon Page, Patti Ragan, Lesley Bullion, Daniel Neises, Robin M Williams, Bruno P Petruccelli, Meredith Vandermeer, Kathryn H Lofy, Jacqueline Gindler, Lyn Finelli, and 2009 Pandemic Influenza A H1N1 Virus Fall Hospitalizations Investigation Team.
• Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30341, USA.
• Clin. Infect. Dis. 2011 Jan 1; 52 Suppl 1: S50-9.

AbstractGiven the potential worsening clinical severity of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus (pH1N1) infection from spring to fall 2009, we conducted a clinical case series among patients hospitalized with pH1N1 infection from September through October 2009. A case patient was defined as a hospitalized person who had test results positive for pH1N1 virus by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Among 255 hospitalized patients, 34% were admitted to an intensive care unit and 8% died. Thirty-four percent of patients were children <18 years of age, 8% were adults ≥ 65 years of age, and 67% had an underlying medical condition. Chest radiographs obtained at hospital admission that had findings that were consistent with pneumonia were noted in 103 (46%) of 255 patients. Among 255 hospitalized patients, 208 (82%) received neuraminidase inhibitors, but only 47% had treatment started ≤ 2 days after illness onset. Overall, characteristics of hospitalized patients with pH1N1 infection in fall 2009 were similar to characteristics of patients hospitalized with pH1N1 infection in spring 2009, which suggests that clinical severity did not change substantially over this period.

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