Please consider the facts.....
In the U.S., an estimated 25–50 million cases of the flu are currently reported each year — leading to 150,000 hospitalizations and 30,000–40,000 deaths yearly. If these figures were to be estimated incorporating the rest of the world, there would be an average of approximately 1 billion cases of flu, around 3–5 million cases of severe illness, and 300,000–500,000 deaths annually.
http://www.flufacts.com/impact/statistics.aspx
So in the grand scheme of things what does any of it all mean. Is 65,000 any more than any other year????
You said — So in the grand scheme of things what does any of it all mean. Is 65,000 any more than any other year????
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Well, I would say yes, in this case. You supplied figures of 300,000-500,000 deaths, worldwide, annually. So, let’s take the projected figure of 65,000 deaths in just the U.K. and see how that compares.
If we took the 300,000 and the 65,000 figures, we would have the U.K. with almost 22% of the worldwide deaths. Or perhaps the 500,000 figure, we would have the U.K. with about 13% of the worldwide death figure.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a lot to me — and that’s just one country. When you start figuring in all the other countries you’re going to end up with a huge figure there.
And then, when you see that there are about three flu pandemics per century (on the average over the last three centuries), and that the last one was 41 years ago — that’s another thing that is very significant. Being that the last one was 41 years ago, that’s way over the average, by many years. So, one could say that we were “due” for another pandemic by the average figures per century.
And another thing, when you figure that this strain of the A/H1N1 flu virus can *also* be happening right along side the “seasonal flu” too — then you’ve got even more problems. Those figures that you were giving were for the seasonal flu. And that’s fine. But, guess what — the seasonal flu will be going on right alongside the “A/H1N1 flu pandemic” virus. You can (and *will*) have both going on at the same time. And an immunity or resistance to one is not going to provide an immunity or resistance to the other.
And one more thing, the A/H1N1 flu virus is related to the 1918 flu virus which is called worst medical/disease disaster in world history, even surpassing the Plague of the Middle Ages. We haven’t seen if this is going to mutate and change and become more deadly. These things do have a tendency to mutate and change as they go along.
I would say that the A/H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009 is quite significant...