SHOOT: Getting clear information on swine flu is well nigh impossible. Is a death from swine flu when there are underlying symptoms counted? Since infections are no longer being counted the numbers are becoming virtually meaningless. So one has to look to signals from one's community to gauge a change or a trend. Vigilance is recommended.
In Europe, 5.3 out of every 100,000 people were reported to have swine flu. There was a wide variation across countries – in Poland only 0.2 persons per 100,000 had the disease, while in the UK the rate was the highest at 19.5 persons per 100,000. Other countries with relatively higher infection rates were Germany (8.3), Norway (9.9) and Iceland (16.5).
Actually, the number of cases is likely to be more, because 15 countries stopped performing tests to confirm the presence of H1N1 and started treating patients symptomatically.
In the US, reported cases were highest among people in the 5 to 24 years age group (26.7 per 100,000) followed by those aged 0 to 4 years (22.9). At 1.3 people per 100,000, the infection rate was lowest in people 65 years and older. In Europe, people up to 40 years of age were most affected by the disease. Less than 5% of those over 60 were affected by swine
flu.
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