Is the H1N1 virus more deadly than seasonal strains of flu?
Early estimates suggest the H1N1 virus is probably more deadly than seasonal flu viruses, but much less deadly than the pandemic virus that caused the Spanish flu of 1918. However, flu viruses mutate rapidly, and this virus could change in the coming months. The Spanish flu virus was mild when it first appeared in the spring of 1918, but when it returned the next winter, it killed 30 people for every 1,000 it infected. In contrast, epidemiologists who analysed April’s H1N1 epidemic in Mexico recently reported that the estimated fatality rate of the H1N1 virus is four in 1,000, meaning this virus is considerably less lethal than the one that caused the 1918 pandemic, but somewhat more lethal than seasonal flu viruses, which have a fatality rate of two in 1,000. How serious could the next wave of the H1N1 pandemic be? Although it’s impossible to predict how severe the pandemic could be, experts from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center believe it so far resembles the 1957-58 flu p
