About 36,000 people, mostly the very young, very old and those with other conditions, die from flu-related causes in the United States annually. Others who get the flu feel ill and uncomfortable but find it more annoying than life-threatening.
So, why should everyone be worried about this new strain?
People have limited natural immunities to combat new strains of the flu, such as the strain behind the current outbreak. The lack of widespread immunity allows a strain to travel more quickly through the population than a known strain where immunities have developed.
No two strains act alike, making it difficult to predict how a new strain might act or affect certain segments of the population — including the healthy.
The current strain also concerns health experts because it appears to spread person to person more easily than past swine flus.
Will it get worse?
Right now, it is too early to tell whether this strain will die out or evolve into something more serious.
Michael Osterholm, an expert on global flu outbreaks, told The Associated Press last week that the situation is between “something that could literally die out over the next couple of weeks and never show up again, or this could be the opening act of a full-fledged influenza pandemic.”
This in-between period during which a strain can evolve might prove crucial.
Some scientists speculate that the 1918 flu pandemic, which started with a wave of mild illness, somehow changed before unleashing a far deadlier wave in the fall that was most lethal to young, healthy adults. The 1918 flu pandemic killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million people worldwide.
Sources: The Associated Press; World Health Organization; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Barry Osborne, The Denver Post
