There is a greater chance that Blacks will be hospitalized after contracting H1N1 or swine flu than whites, according to a recent report by the Chicago Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There is a greater chance that Blacks will be hospitalized after contracting H1N1 or swine flu than whites, according to a recent report by the Chicago Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There is an even greater chance that an appreciable number of people in the Black community don’t have a lot of information about this “novel” pandemic, the CDC indicated.
The federal agency has reached out to the Black Press–among other media outlets–to help raise awareness about the disease.
"The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" concluded that Blacks with swine flu were hospitalized at a rate of nine per 100,000, Hispanics at a rate of eight per 100,000 while whites were at a rate of two per 100,000.
One reason for the disparity is because of health problems Blacks often have such as diabetes, asthma and obesity, said Dr. Terry Mason, commissioner for the Chicago Department of Health.
“Minority communities are more affected by health problems than any other ethnic group,” Mason told the Defender.
This year, there have been 1,557 confirmed cases of swine flu in Chicago. And of that total, seven died and 20 were hospitalized. The ethnic makeup was not immediately known, Mason explained.
“We don’t have the ethnic breakdowns so I would not feel comfortable speculating how many swine flu victims were Black,” the commissioner said.
Regardless of race or ethnicity, however, officials report that the virus does not affect one group differently than it affects another.
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