• Question: why was everyone so worried about swine flu?

    Asked by etaylor to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB on 26 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      Swine flu was a bit of a damp squib. Early data from Mexico suggested 10 – 30% mortality, which led to the most stringent of responses. It turns out the mexicans got it wildly wrong and in fact it was “just another flu”.
      But there is a precedent.
      Next time you walk past a war memorial count the names, then double it,- that’s the death toll from the 1918 flu virus. In WWI 30 – 40 million troops died in the fighting, whereas 50 – 100 million people died of the flu pandemic in 1918-19.
      THAT is why everyone got so worried…

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      Hi etaylor- people were worried because in 1918 nearly 100 million people died due to suspected swine flu, but this was never confirmed.

      Since then it has cropped up every so often, and all over the world, most recently in 2010, but there was a bit of an overreaction and it turned out to be nothing to worry about.

      However, it is important that any flu outbreaks are closely monitored in future…

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