Elderly more immune to H1N1 swine flu?

It's known that H1N1 swine flu virus seems to be hitting young adults
especially hard, but now tests are showing that people 60 and older
seem to have stronger immunity to new H1N1 swine flu virus than their
younger counterparts. AP Photo/Aaron Favila

It's known that H1N1 swine flu virus seems to be hitting young adults especially hard, but now tests are showing that people 60 and older seem to have stronger immunity to new H1N1 swine flu virus than their younger counterparts.

Researchers suspect that older people have been exposed to past flu strains in which viruses were more similar to the present H1N1 flu strain than the newer seasonal flus that younger people have experienced.

However, officials are expressing caution, as data is still being finalized, and "can't say" about the exact nature or degree of any extra protection enjoyed by the elderly, said Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Until then, the CDC is advising older people to exercise the same preventative measures as everyone else.

CDC researchers combined the new H1N1 swine flu virus with samples taken from healthy people in the U.S. and Europe before the new flu surfaced. They then measured antibodies that defend against infection. 30% of samples from people 60 and older showed significant protection against the new H1N1 swine flu virus compared to less than 10% of samples from younger adults.

CDC officials said those findings would likely apply to European and American populations, but that more study was needed to determine if this holds true for the Mexican population. They point out that the sample size was small and that the lab tests have yet to be fully verified, so they remain unwilling to make any formal announcement about H1N1 flu immunity in older people until more is known.

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