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Here at Gothamist Health we stand against borough bashing in all its forms, but if you're going to get the flu this year, try not to get it in Staten Island. The Daily News reports that the death rate from the flu and pneumonia is more than twice as high in Staten Island than in the rest of the City. In 2005, the death rate in SI was about 67 deaths per 100,000 patients compared with 33 in the remaining boroughs. With a population of less than half a million, the SI provided about 10% of all of the flu and pneumonia related deaths in 2005.
Officials felt that perhaps the older Staten Island population or higher flu infection rates were to blame for the higher death rates. Instead, it seems that the higher smoking rates (30% compared with the City wide rate of 18%) in SI may be responsible, as smokers are more likely to have chronic heart and lung disease that lower resistance to various types of infections.
To deal with these figures, the health department is putting in an extra effort to provide free flu shots in on the Island. If you live in Staten Island or just want the flu shot, call 311 or visit www.nyc.gov/hhc to find out where you can get one. And in case you're wondering if you really need one, the DOH only recommends that the following people get `em:
+ All children aged 6 months until their fifth birthday.
+ All pregnant women, at any stage of pregnancy.
+ All people aged 50 years and older
+ All people aged 5 to 49 years with certain chronic medical conditions
+ All residents of nursing homes, chronic care facilities, and other long-term care facilities, who are at least 6 months of age
+ All out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of high-risk individuals, including contacts of children under 5 years of age
+ All health care workers
But hey, Staten Islanders, look at the bright side: you'll still live longer than most people in Brooklyn!
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What do you mean, "MAY be"?
congrats for not bashing any of the boroughs, but i'll be more impressed if a week goes by without any unneccesary sarcasm directed towards the garden state.
Living on a landfill
oh yeah that is perfectly healthy
I'd like to point out that if you have ever gone to a Mets' game you have sat directly on top of a landfill for nine innings. They are everywhere in the city. Staten Island just has the most recent one.
It’s not really their fault.
Its that they're too close to New Jersey.
This is nothing more than the NYC DOH's obsession with demonizing smoking at every chance. Did it ever occur to anyone repeating what amounts to nothing more than a guess that this is a count easily conducted? As in, question family about the smoking habits of those that died from the flu or pneumonia. So ask yourself why they didn't do that or produce a number if they did. Then consider this if we want to assume smokers account for a number of dead... a higher rate of smokers in SI means a higher rate of people forced out into the cold to enjoy their cigarette where... what?... they can catch their death of cold. I say we blame the NYC DOH's smoking BAN for the higher number of deaths.