CDC: 50 Millions Americans Have Had Swine Flu
Approximately 50 million Americans have been infected with swine flu, and the infamous pandemic has resulted in about 10,000 deaths, according to new estimates released by government health officials on Thursday.
To break it down, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that about 1 in 6 Americans have had the illness.
The numbers reflect the first seven months of the pandemic, from April through mid-November. The latest estimates by far exceed the previous estimates, which said swine flu had sickened 22 million Americans and killed about 4,000 through mid-October.
This is largely due to cases that occurred after early October, when the illness was at the its peak of the second wave, CDC officials said.
According go CDC estimates, nearly 200,000 people were admitted to the hospital through mid-November, close to the same number seen during the entire winter flu season.
The majority of hospitalization and deaths from the seasonal flu occur among the elderly, but it was mostly non-elderly adults with the swine flu, CDC officials said.
People ages 18 to 64 accounted for more than 75% of the deaths, according to the CDC.
The new estimates appear to be resounding an unpublished, in-depth CDC analysis of 100 U.S. swine flu deaths. The research showed that about 80% of those deaths were in people ages 20 through 59, and 45% were obese.
It is difficult to make accurate flu estimates since many illnesses are relatively mild and go unreported, and many hospitalizations and deaths involve more issues than just the flu alone. The CDC believes that between 34 million and 67 million Americans have been hit with swine flu, but Frieden gave 50 million as a midpoint estimate.
It is also difficult to compare flu estimates. The seasonal flu causes around 36,000 deaths in Americans each year, according to a long-standing estimate. However, that number includes many elderly people who were also suffering from related pneumonia and even heart attacks and strokes. The most recent CDC swine flu estimates do not take heart attacks and strokes into account, primarily because there has not been sufficient time to gather such information.
Therefore, the new estimate is probably conservative, and CDC officials acknowledge it undercounts elderly deaths.
The number of hospitalizations and deaths of younger people from swine flu still far surpasses what typically occurs in the same ages from the winter flu.
"This flu is much harder on younger people," Frieden said at a press conference in Atlanta.
Thus far, the swine flu pandemic has come in two waves in the United States. The first wave was when it was first identified in the spring, and the second and larger wave that began in late summer.
In late October, 48 states reported widespread flu activity. It seems that this was the peak of the second wave. Since then, such widespread swine flu cases have been reported in fewer states, and the number of school closings due to swine flu has at times dropped to zero.
Unfortunately, the nation has yet to see the end of the swine flu entirely. There are still many people who are ill, as many as during the worst days of many regular flu seasons. CDC officials have warned that the apparent drop in the number of cases does not mean that the worst is over.
Frieden said that about 15% of Americans have had swine flu at some point, and experts believe that between 5 percent and 20 percent of Americans get seasonal flu each year.
Despite the fact that tens of million of Americans have had swine flu, Frieden notes that most of them have not, making vaccination still very important. The vaccine for swine flu first came out in early October in very limited supplies, but there has been a substantial increase in deliveries, with about 85 million doses now available.
The CDC also released a study on Thursday finding that the swine flu has killed American Indians and Alaska Natives at a rate four times greater than other Americans.
The study examined swine flu deaths among 12 states that are home to about half of the nation’s American Indians and Alaska Natives, and found 42 people in those groups who died of swine flu or its complications by mid-November.
American Indians and Alaska Natives also have higher rates of diabetes, asthma and other conditions that make them more vulnerable. Both groups also have higher poverty rates, and were more greatly affected than other people during past flu pandemics.
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