Thirty to 50 percent of the entire U.S. population could be infected with swine flu this fall and winter, according to a report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
As many as 1.8 million people may end up in the hospital, and 30,000 to 90,000 could die, with a concentration among children and young adults, the presidential panel of the nation's leading scientists said today in outlining what it called a plausible scenario. That's more than twice the annual average of deaths typically associated with the seasonal flu, and those occur mainly in people older than 65.
"We're going to have people hospitalized and we will, unfortunately, have more deaths," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The report says this swine flu is a "serious threat to our nation and the world." Because it's a new strain of the flu, people do not have a built-in immunity.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Up to half of US population may get swine flu.
From ABC News:
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4 comments:
Saw a headline about this yesterday--scary!
Fun! The weekly swine flu updates from my mother will become daily now!
La, please don't eat that giant sandwich with your mouth open. I'm afraid of germs.
I think my daughter had it last spring (along with most of her class), so my whole family has already been exposed! Maybe we'll have some immunity next time around?
I'm so glad that the 45 million Americans without health insurance will be jamming the ERs in the fall because they don't have access to any other form of health care due to lack of coverage! Way to go you anti-universal health care peeps!
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