KEY
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ANNUAL FLU AND PANDEMIC
FLU
The annual flu occurs every year during
the winter months affecting 5 to 20% of the US population.
Globally, the annual flu kills 500,000 million people each
year - 36,000 to 40,000 in the US alone. Deaths are generally
confined to "at risk" groups, such as the elderly (65+), the
young (ages 6-23 months) and those with existing medical
conditions like lung disease, diabetes, cancer, kidney or
heart problems, and people with compromised immune systems.
Most people who contract the annual flu recover within a week
or two.
Vaccinations for the annual flu are
effective because the virus strain in circulation each winter
can be reliably predicted and antiviral drugs are available
for those most at risk of becoming seriously ill.
The
Pandemic Flu only occurs three to four times a century and can
take place in any season. Experts predict an infection rate of
25 to 50% of the population, depending on the severity of the
virus strain. The worst pandemic of the last century - the
"Spanish Flu" of 1918 killed 500,000 in the US and 50 million
worldwide.
As you'd expect, the pandemic flu is
usually associated with a higher severity of illness and,
consequently, a higher risk of death, as all age groups may be
at risk for infection, not just "at risk" groups. Otherwise
fit adults could be at relatively greater risk, based on
patterns of previous epidemics. For example, adults under age
35 (a key segment of the US workforce) were disproportionately
affected during the 1918 pandemic.
A vaccine
against pandemic flu may not be available at the start of the
pandemic. New strains of viruses must be accurately identified
and producing an effective vaccine could take up to six months
or longer. Antiviral drugs may be in limited supply, and their
effectiveness will only be known definitively once the
pandemic is underway.
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Home Care for Pandemic
Flu
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