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The H1N1 influenza virus continues to disproportionately affect young people, according to new government figures released Tuesday.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involving 4,958 hospitalizations from the H1N1 virus showed 53% of the cases were in people age 24 and younger. The hospitalizations were reported by 27 states from Aug. 30 through Oct. 10. Among people ages 25 to 64, the rate was 39%, and among those age 65 and older the hospitalization rate was 7%. (In the remaining 1% of cases, the age was unknown.).

CDC also looked at 292 deaths reported by 28 states during the same time period. The percentage of deaths in people age 24 and younger was 24%, and in those ages 25 to 64 it was 64%. Twelve percent of the deaths occurred in people age 65 and older.

"This is really, really different from what we see with seasonal flu," said Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 60% of hospitalizations and 90% of deaths related to seasonal influenza occur in people age 65 and older.

The hospitalization figures largely track what was seen in the spring when the H1N1 virus was first discovered. Health officials believe many older Americans have some sort of immunity to the H1N1 virus from past exposure to similar viruses.

H1N1 vaccine for the U.S. market is being made by five manufacturers, although the manufacturing process is taking longer than federal health officials had anticipated. So far, about 12.8 million doses have been made available for states to order from the federal government. Officials had hoped that 40 million doses would be out by the end of the month.

Schuchat said more H1N1 vaccine is being made available each day but acknowledged that demand is currently outstripping supply. She also noted in some places there are shortages of seasonal vaccine. About 82 million out of an expected 114 million doses of seasonal vaccine have been distributed. Previously, manufacturers had hoped to produce 118 million doses.

The U.S. has purchased H1N1 vaccines and enough bulk ingredients from manufacturers to make up to make a total of 251 million doses. The vaccines are being distributed to states and some large cities, which in turn will distribute the vaccines to about 90,000 health-care providers, retailers and local health departments over a period of several weeks.

The companies making vaccines for the U.S. are a unit of Sanofi Aventis (SNY), Novartis AG (NVS), CSL Ltd. (CSL.AU) GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) and MedImmune, which is a unit of AstraZeneca PLC (AZN).

-By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9294; jennifer.corbett@dowjones.com

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