Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – As the H1N1 flu continues its grip on the U.S., new California research says the infection can cause severe illness with more hospitalization and death in the elderly, children and young adults.

H1N1 influenza hit California first and fast. Back in April the California Department of Public Health began looking at who was affected and just how sick they became. Dr. Janice K Louie of the California Department of Health said, “We actually found that over 30% of the patients who were admitted and hospitalized required intensive care and mechanical ventilation and over 10% died."

16 year old, Tiffany Lee was part of that 30%. On the mend now, she's been at children's hospital and research center in Oakland for more than three months. Most of that time she has been in intensive care, on a ventilator, and not able to breath on her own. 

"Well it definitely was a surprise because I didn't expect to get that sick," said Lee.
 
Researchers looked at  1,000 people who were hospitalized or died with H1N1 flu in California from April to August of this year. 

"One of the most important messages of this study is that H1N1 infections can be a severe illness even if you don't necessarily have the risk factors for severe complications. Even healthy people can get sick and hospitalized. And another interesting fact we found, that there is a perception that the elderly are protected and have some pre-existing immunity when in fact in our study, if the elderly were admitted and severely ill they often ended up dying,” said  Dr. Louie.

As for Tiffany, she is hoping to be home for the holidays.

The study also reports that infants under six months had a higher risk of hospitalization and that "rapid tests" used by doctors to quickly diagnose the seasonal flu wasn't as reliable in detecting the H1N1 infection.

Thursday morning on The Morning News, we will be joined by members of the Onondaga County Health Department at 5:00 a.m. to take your calls and listen to your concerns about the flu.