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Influenza (2009-2010)
Please add profiles for those who died as a result of Influenza between 2009-2010.
2009 – 2010
In the spring of 2009, a new flu virus spread quickly across the United States and the world. The first U.S. case of H1N1 (swine flu) was diagnosed on April 15, 2009. By April 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was working to develop a vaccine for this new virus. On April 26, the U.S. government declared H1N1 a public health emergency.
By June, 18,000 cases of H1N1 had been reported in the United States. A total of 74 countries were affected by the pandemic. H1N1 vaccine supply was limited in the beginning. People at the highest risk of complications got the vaccine first.
By November 2009, 48 states had reported cases of H1N1, mostly in young people. That same month, over 61 million vaccine doses were ready. Reports of flu activity began to decline in parts of the country, which gave the medical community a chance to vaccinate more people. 80 million people were vaccinated against H1N1, which minimized the impact of the illness.
The CDC estimates that 43 million to 89 million people had H1N1 between April 2009 and April 2010. They estimate between 8,870 and 18,300 H1N1 related deaths.
H1N1/09 Flu Pandemic (2009–2010)
An epidemic of influenza-like illness of unknown causation occurred in Mexico in March–April 2009. On 24 April 2009, following the isolation of an A/H1N1 influenza in 7 ill patients in the southwest US. The WHO issued a statement on the outbreak of "influenza like illness" in the confirmed cases of A/H1N1 influenza had been reported in Mexico, and that 20 confirmed cases of the disease had been reported in the US. The next day, the number of confirmed cases rose to 40 in the US, 26 in Mexico, 6 in Canada, and 1 in Spain. The disease spread rapidly through the rest of the spring, and by 3 May, a total of 787 confirmed cases had been reported worldwide.[49] On 11 June 2009, the ongoing outbreak of Influenza A/H1N1, commonly referred to as "swine flu", was officially declared by the WHO to be the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century and a new strain of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 first identified in April 2009.[50]
It is thought to be a mutation (reassortment) of four known strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1:
- one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine).[51]
- The rapid spread of this new virus was likely due to a general lack of pre-existing antibody-mediated immunity in the human population.[52]
On 1 November 2009, a worldwide update by the WHO stated that "199 countries and overseas territories/communities have officially reported a total of over 482,300 laboratory confirmed cases of the influenza pandemic H1N1 infection, that included 6,071 deaths."[53] By the end of the pandemic, there were more than 18,000 laboratory confirmed deaths from H1N1.[54] Due to inadequate surveillance and lack of healthcare in many countries, the actual total of cases and deaths was likely much higher than reported. Experts, including the WHO, have since agreed that an estimated 284,500 people were killed by the disease, about 15 times the number of deaths in the initial death toll.
Novel H1N1, 2009
The latest pandemic influenza appeared in Mexico in mid-March 2009. When this flu strain first emerged, authorities were concerned by the unusually high mortality rate. Identified as Influenza A (H1N1), it quickly spread up into Texas, California, and beyond.
CDC estimates that between 42 million and 86 million cases of 2009 H1N1 occurred in the United States between April 2009 and February 13, 2010. Between 8,520 - 17,620 US deaths were attributed to this pandemic.
Additional Reading:
- Influenza Pandemics of the 20th Century
- Pandemic Flu History
- Wikipedia, Influenza Pandemic
- Influenza Pandemics: A Look Back
- Influenza Update by Dr. TV Rao, MD
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