PUNE: Weight control has become even more imperative now in the wake of the swine flu pandemic, as being overweight reduces immunity and therefore chances of contracting viral infections increases and recovery becomes difficult, a senior obesity disorder specialist has said.

“Obese people, though they look healthy externally, are not healthy nutritionally. Obesity is also known as an inflammatory disorder because fat present in the abdomen secretes various inflammatory markers,” secretary, Obesity Surgery Society of India and founder of Laparoscopic and Obesity Centre based in Pune and Mumbai, Dr Shashank Shah told Sakaal Times.

Many of the obese patients have decreased lung results, reduced immunity and associated diseases like diabetes. These help infections to grow and hence the person is susceptible to secondary infection.

“The virus attacks the body through an inflammatory process. Obesity already has inflammatory disorder in it. So when swine flu strikes, immunity decreases. An Indian woman who died in Singapore due to swine flu was reportedly suffering from obesity. A Mumbai woman who died had reportedly developed acute respiratory problem. Besides, she had diabetes and hypertension. These are induced by obesity and this was the reason why swine flu may have acted very fast,” Shah said.

Citing an American study, he said that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in its report, had stated that nine out of ten swine flu patients admitted in a Michigan Hospital were obese and two of the three who died were severely obese.

“University of Michigan Medical Centre studied the cases of 10 patients admitted to the university's ICUs with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by infection with H1N1. Of the 10 patients, nine were obese (body mass index more than 30), including seven who were extremely obese (BMI more than 40), they wrote in their report. Nine had multiple organ failure, which can be seen in influenza, but five had blood clots in lungs and six had kidney failure,” he said.

 Incidentally, Maharashtra, which has witnessed the maximum number of H1N1 deaths in the country, is ninth on the list of most obese states as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS) amongst males.