flu stats.. all flus are pandemics

every year we inoculate against the latest pandemic, flus start in China and head out from there.. 2 million people a year die from flu, 36,000 in the United States alone.

What is more worrisome about a swine flu such as this, is that it seems to attack the opposite of what our yearly flus attack. The hale hearty and healthy 20 to 45 year olds with the strongest immune systems. (which makes you wonder how much we really value the old and very young who die each year from the latest strain of flu)

This flu, looks to cause your normal immune system to overcompensate and cause issues that way.

Edit to add: I am in no way any expert in this field, just picking up information from various sources and putting it together in my own head

I think the major concern here is how this strain is going to mutate, as humans have no immunity to this strain whatsoever. I have had the flu so many times, I hope this snuffs itself out soon.

...as you said, more than 30,000 people in the United States alone, die of the flu.

I just don't get why this flu is so much worse than the flu of any other year.

100 people have died in Mexico, and there is a major panic. However, there are no headlines
when 30,000 people die each year in the United States.

Can you imagine, if 1,000 people died from this Swine Flu? It would be a media feeding frenzy, and
everyone would be stockpiling food and water. Seems a strange over reaction, given the 30,000 stat,
doesn't it?

Is it possible that the media is hyping this unnecessarily?

I'm not an epidemiologist, and I don't understand the intricacies of the Swine Flu, but I don't
understand why it is so different than the flu strains that hit our nation every year, killing
more than 30,000 people.

If there's a silver lining to all of this--and I don't want to downplay the tragedy of those people and families who are suffering the most from this illness--that silver lining may be that it takes time away from the "100 days report card" silliness.

In Mexico the swine flu has a mortality rate of 7%. The "normal flu has a mortality rate of <2%.

Finally, finally I heard somebody say as much on television--Sanjay Gupta--that all flu kills, all flu runs the danger of turning into pneumonia and causing other serious complications to people who are already ill or otherwise in a weakened, unusually vulnerable state. Hundreds of people die every year from flu, yet the media is going into a frenzy over an official saying that there could well be some deaths from this latest strain of flu. Well, yes....

All the more need to have effective national health coverage to keep people from getting into that state of vulnerability in the first place (as much as possible), not just the wealthy but people in all walks of life. (Thanks, Peacetrain, for giving me a chance to vent.)

I wrote this to explain, in very simplified terms, the basic differences.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5537256&mesg_id=5537256

Looking back at the 1918 pandemic can shed light on just how incredible even a slight difference in mortality numbers can be.

1918 had a fatality rate of a approx. 2.5-5%. This swine flu has a fatality rate of around 7% in Mexico.

The 2.5-5% rate in 1918...




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

The 1918 flu was also a swine flu that affected primarily the younger and otherwise healthy adults.

There is a significant difference between seasonal flu that further weakens and kills those who are already weak and a swine flu that kills through cytokine storms.

I also want to add that flu strains can begin anywhere. ("flus start in China")

edited because i forgot the link