The young and healthy

There was some interesting data in The Guardian last Thursday (October 1) on swine flu patients.
Unfortunately, I've been unable to find out where The Guardian got this information from. The paper describes it was a Department of Health patient survey but despite an extensive search by the DofH press office, they could find no record of it. But I trust The Guardian so I'll happily repeat the few findings they reported:
* More than 80 per cent of children under the age of five who have been hospitalised with swine flu had no underlying health problems.
* And almost half of those aged 16 to 14 who needed inpatient treatment for the infection had also been previously healthy.
* More than one in four patients admitted to hospital had asthma, more than 15 per cent had heart disease and more than 10 per cent had diabetes
However, the sample was only of 192 patients. It reaffirms that the fit and healthy among us - that's Dad in my swine flu family above - shouldn't be complacent. And while The Whitehaven News reported this week on an outbreak of suspected swine flu in an old folk's home, the elderly actually seem to be more resistant to it than most.