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"Bloomberg is reporting that the World Health Organization discovered a single, surprising characteristic that's emerged among swine flu victims who become severely ill: They are all fat. Infected people with a body mass index greater than 40 suffer respiratory complications that are harder to treat and can be fatal. The virus appears to be on a collision course with the obesity epidemic. WHO officials are gathering statistics to confirm and understand this development. 'It's very likely that if we went back retrospectively and looked at people who did poorly during seasonal flu, what would shake out is that obesity would be one of the risks.' Fat cells secrete chemicals that cause chronic, low-level inflammation that can hamper the body's immune response and narrow the airways, says Tim Armstrong, a doctor working in the WHO's chronic diseases department in Geneva.""Bloomberg is reporting that the World Health Organization discovered a single, surprising characteristic that's emerged among swine flu victims who become severely ill: They are all fat. Infected people with a body mass index greater than 40 suffer respiratory complications that are harder to treat and can be fatal. The virus appears to be on a collision course with the obesity epidemic. WHO officials are gathering statistics to confirm and understand this development. 'It's very likely that if we went back retrospectively and looked at people who did poorly during seasonal flu, what would shake out is that obesity would be one of the risks.' Fat cells secrete chemicals that cause chronic, low-level inflammation that can hamper the body's immune response and narrow the airways, says Tim Armstrong, a doctor working in the WHO's chronic diseases department in Geneva."

http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/216240/Swine-Flu-Kills-Obese-People-Disproportionately?from=rss

I'm safe then. 🙂

sounds like a wind up

Headlines then?

Fat-pig-flu strikes!

any others?

chubby-choker

If it's not a wind up then that journo has a rather unfortunate name

Liking the 'darwin' tag on the slashdot story

If it's not a wind up then that journo has a rather unfortunate name

Jason Gale? j.gale@bloomberg.net

Don't get it.

It's a total non-story anyway.

"Morbidly obese people more likely to die from infection of the lungs"

It gets better:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8151427.stm

Fat people AND the religious, all with one virus.
All my pagan winter festivals have come at once! 🙂

Oh, I bet lose some weight sharpish!

If it's not a wind up then that journo has a rather unfortunate name

Jason Gale? j.gale@bloomberg.net

Don't get it.

Clicky

Philip K Dickhead writes…

name of the user that posted the link on Slashdot – 😆
Story – 🙂

Sorry, what?

Erm.. "Philip K Dickhead" isn't the name of the journalist. It is the name of the user that posted the link on Slashdot.

The actual story is on Bloomberg here:
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aM.7Dg3Z_msI

If you carry out a search there is also a Guardian online article and some other mentions. You wont of course read about it in the main UK press as it will be seen as un-pc.

You wont of course read about it in the main UK press as it will be seen as un-pc.

Erm yeah, because the main UK press is well known for being PC. 🙄

It shouldn't appear in the press because it is a complete non-story, but I'm sure a few of the papers will run with it anyways.

Is it true that fat people are unhealthy then and more likely to die ?
What about people who smoke and dont excercise any news on them yet?

Junkyard, its the 'swine' bit linked with weight!

😀

To be clear, they aren't talking about slightly porky* people.

They are talking about "clinically/morbidly obese" people who have a BMI over 40 (e.g. for a 6ft bloke that would mean 21 stone or more)

* no pun intended

Slightly leftfield- anyone see Lou Feringo on one of those Michael Jackson tribute shows? SHEESH his arms are bloody massive. Arnie's deflated over the years but Lou seems to have kept most of his bulk!

60yrs old and probably close to 20stone of muscle!

Porkers die of pig flu 🙂