The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but is estimated at 2.5 to 5% of the human population, with 20% or more of the world population suffering from the disease to some extent.
This pandemic has been described as "the greatest medical holocaust in history" and may have killed more people than the Black Death.
Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65, and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old.
Re:World health chief says it may be too late to contain swi...
by ftse on Saturday April 25, 2009 @03:52PM
(#579248)
Sixty-eight deaths from around one thousand infections is a lethality of 7%. That alone should make us take this very seriously until we have more data.
Re:World health chief says it may be too late to contain swi...
by eduardoflores on Saturday April 25, 2009 @06:36PM
(#579363)
In the State of Mexico (metro area of Mexico City) there has been 3 deaths out of 44 cases of Influenza (not all confirmed to be H1N1) which is 6.8% lethality
Update: On San Luis Potosi (some 400Km north Mexico City, second biggest outbreak) has been reported 62 cases and 5 deaths, 8% http://bit.ly/15VOOt
Re:World health chief says it may be too late to contain swi...
by gojomo on Sunday April 26, 2009 @04:52AM
(#579817)
In these sorts of situations, people who have mild cases of the same strain don't even seek treatment. That means the denominator -- the actual number of infections -- is much higher than initial/limited reports, and the fatality rate correspondingly lower.
So far, all confirmed cases in the US have been mild. And they probably caught it from others who got over it without triggering any alarm. So don't head for the hills based on early fatality extrapolations from Mexico just yet.
Re:World health chief says it may be too late to contain swi...
by patrickg-zill on Saturday April 25, 2009 @07:31PM
(#579413)
The real question is, will there be a large amount of variance among populations in different countries? You cannot necessarily extrapolate from Mexico City to other places since climate, diet, and no doubt other factors, all play a role.
Extra nice quotes:
The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but is estimated at 2.5 to 5% of the human population, with 20% or more of the world population suffering from the disease to some extent.
This pandemic has been described as "the greatest medical holocaust in history" and may have killed more people than the Black Death.
Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65, and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old.
That's not much data, I'll grant you, but it's enough to suggest that it could be fairly similar.
Update: On San Luis Potosi (some 400Km north Mexico City, second biggest outbreak) has been reported 62 cases and 5 deaths, 8% http://bit.ly/15VOOt
So far, all confirmed cases in the US have been mild. And they probably caught it from others who got over it without triggering any alarm. So don't head for the hills based on early fatality extrapolations from Mexico just yet.
I am not losing much sleep over thoughts of dying from this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_chan
http://bash.org/?4780
"<Thumb> do you know of any major organizations that are similar the CDC?
<Lucent> who?
<Thumb> center for disease control
<Lucent> i said WHO
<Thumb> what? i'm asking you
<Lucent> World Health Organization"