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Source: ONE News -
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High rates of H1N1 severe swine flu in Maori and Pacific Island people over the past winter provide a particularly vivid example of health inequalities, says a researcher in public health.
"We should take (the message from) it really seriously," associate Professor Michael Baker of Wellington told the NZ Doctor magazine.
A member of Otago University's public health department, and the lead author of an academic review published in the journal Eurosurveillance, Prof Baker says pandemic influenza was a test of the health system and society.
Markedly higher rates of severe disease for Maori and Pacific peoples were reflected in their hospitalisation rates between April and August this year, which, at 43 and 94.2 per 100,000, respectively, were several times higher than the rate for Europeans and others (14.1 per 100,000), the study reported.
"Similar ethnic inequalities between Maori and non-Maori were seen for fatalities in the 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand," the authors said.
Separate research has shown that during the 1918 pandemic - which involved a different influenza strain - Maori were seven times more likely than Europeans to die.
In July, official figures showed over 50% of swine flu patients - where ethnicity was known and the H1N1 virus had been confirmed - were Maori or Pacific Islanders.
But health officials said at the time it was still "too early" to say whether the pandemic swine flu virus was hitting Polynesians harder than other ethnic groups.
This was despite a group of 1059 confirmed cases, breaking down to 207 Maori, 212 Pacific Islanders, and 258 European. Other ethnicities among patients with confirmed swine flu totalled 84 while another 298 were of unknown ethnicity.
Of the 761 confirmed swine flu patients for whom ethnicity was known, 27.2% were Maori, 27.8% Pacific Islanders, 33.9% European, and 11% other ethnicities.
In the 2006 census just 14.6% of the population were Maori, and 14.7% Polynesian.
But Prof Baker says that though general health and health services had improved since 100 years ago, "we still have persistent inequalities that we really should be addressing".
Household crowding and related factors, higher rates of simultaneous illnesses in the same patient and, arguably, poorer access to care were likely factors in Maori and Pacific people's more severe illness.
"It definitely isn't acceptable," says Prof Baker.
In Dr Baker's study, at August 23, a total of 3179 people had the virus, 30.6% of whom had been hospitalised.
