New research has shown that Indigenous people accounted for 72% of all confirmed hospitalizations with pandemic H1N1 influenza (swine flu) in the Top End.

This collaborative research effort from Menzies School of Health Research, the Northern Territory Centre for Disease Control, and the Royal Darwin Hospital has been published online by the Medical Journal of Australia.

During June to August 2009 there were 918 notified cases of pandemic H1N1 influenza in the Top End, and 161 hospital admissions. That’s significantly higher than national rates and those reported overseas.

Indigenous people were heavily overrepresented in Top End figures.

“Indigenous notification rates were 3.5 times higher than non-indigenous notifications and ICU rates were 5 times higher,’ report coauthor Steven Tong said, ‘but what was particularly striking was that hospital admission rates for Indigenous people were 12 times higher. That rate of 269 hospitalisations per 100,000 population is the highest reported in literature.”

In contrast, hospital and ICU admission rates for the non-Indigenous population in the region were equivalent to those for Australia as a whole.

The research suggests the overrepresentation of Indigenous hospitalizations was caused by high rates of comorbidities and chronic disease; high mobility of the population; inadequate washing, drainage and toilet facilities in remote communities and overcrowded living conditions.

“The lack of adequate housing and subsequent overcrowding in Indigenous communities is particularly striking — recent studies have found that dwellings in Indigenous communities house a mean of 3.4 persons per bedroom, and up to 7.5 persons per bedroom,” the report states.

These findings confirm the need to improve health and living conditions in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and to make vaccination for influenza in the Indigenous populations a priority.

The findings also have serious implications for planning across Top End hospitals and at the Royal Darwin Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, the only ICU facility in the region.

“The nH1N1-related bed occupancy of 23% was higher than the 5.2% reported across Australasia, and directly affected the capacity of the RDH as both a remote regional ICU and as the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre.”

The mortality rate of 14% for patients who were admitted to the RDH ICU (four deaths among 28 patients) was comparable to national figures.

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To organise an interview with Menzies Researchers Steven Tong or Joshua Davis please contact Victoria Close 0447 275 415 or victoria.close@menzies.edu.au
Victoria Close, Communications Officer
Ph: 08 89435039| Mob: 0447 275 415 | Fax: 08 8927 5187 | www.menzies.edu.au