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Worst flu Season on Record, Australia

posted by janrinok on Saturday September 07 2019, @12:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the coming-to-a-hemisphere-near-you? dept.

martyb writes:

Worst flu Season on Record, Australia (emphasis in original):

According to statistics, the 2019 flu season is Australia's worst in recorded history with over 257,359 confirmed cases so far this year.

This record beat the previous one in 2017 with a total number of 251,163 influenza cases. Meanwhile, only 52,000 cases were confirmed in 2018.

"In terms of sheer numbers and the load on general practice and emergency departments, this is the worst flu season that's ever been," immunization expert Paul van Buynder said.

Local media has also reported 587 fatalities from influenza with a majority of elder people. On the contrary, only 73 died from the flu in 2018.

Australia capital Canberra confirmed 3,402 cases so far, which is worse than the total combined records from 2016 to 2018.

By point of comparison, the population of Australia is approximately 25 million people implying over 1.7% of the population came down with the flu.

Projecting from an estimated ~330 million people in the USA, that would mean over 5.7 million cases.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by EvilSS on Saturday September 07 2019, @01:34PM (2 children)

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 07 2019, @01:34PM (#890956)
    Why change the notation from the article? It makes it look like only 257 to 359 cases were confirmed instead of 257,359.

    According to statistics released recently, there have been 257,359 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza so far in 2019, beating the previous record of 251,163 set in 2017.

    "In terms of sheer numbers and the load on general practice and emergency departments, this is the worst flu season that's ever been," Paul van Buynder, an immunization expert from Griffith University, told News Corp Australia.

    According to the local media report, there had been 587 deaths from the flu, the vast majority of which were of elderly people.

    By comparison, there were only 52,000 confirmed cases of the flu in 2018 and 73 deaths.

    Australia's flu season typically runs between June and September, but authorities were caught by surprise when the 2019 season started early.

    In Canberra, Australia's capital city, the 3,402 confirmed cases of influenza so far in 2019 is more than the number of cases in 2016, 2017 and 2018 combined.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 07 2019, @01:48PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday September 07 2019, @01:48PM (#890958) Journal

    Fixed.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 08 2019, @12:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 08 2019, @12:03PM (#891254)

      Is there any explanation for what happened there?