As many as 1 million Americans now have swine flu, U.S. health officials said Thursday, adding that 6 percent or more of some urban areas are infected.
“We knew diagnosed cases were just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert who was in Atlanta for the meeting of a vaccine advisory panel.
Lyn Finelli, a flu surveillance official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made the 1 million estimate in a presentation to the vaccine panel. The number is from mathematical modeling, based on surveys by health officials.
Continued spread signals ‘something different’ happening with new strain
America's count of swine flu cases has risen to 21,449 cases and the number of deaths have nearly doubled to 87.
The continued spread signals the new strain of H1N1 flu is causing “something different” to happen in the United States this year — perhaps an extended year-round flu season that disproportionately hits young people, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The latest numbers, released Friday by the CDC is a jump from last week's count of 18,000 cases and 44 deaths.
Worldwide, the number of confirmed cases reached 44,287, the WHO reported Friday. WHO says cases increased by more than 10 percent in two days.
Figures provided by the global body show Argentina, Britain, Canada, Chile, China, Philippines and Thailand all reported a large rise in cases.
A total of 93 countries had reported cases to WHO by Friday.
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