The number of flu-related
deaths in the United States has increased fourfold since the
1970s and now claims more lives than AIDS -- this despite
the invention of the flu vaccine some 40 years ago.
This increase is
blamed on the aging population, who are more susceptible to
the flu, along with a recent, more lethal strain of the virus.
About 65 percent of the elderly receive flu shots, however
the shots are largely ineffective among this group of people
aged 65 and older. According to a recent report, the shots
do not protect aging immune systems as well as younger ones.
From 1976 to 1977
the number of flu-related deaths was 16, 263, compared with
64, 684 from 1998 to 1999. While previous estimates had gauged
the average number of deaths from flu at 20,000 per year,
researchers say the average number has reached 36,000.
In the mid-1990s
new drugs contributed to a decline in U.S. AIDS deaths from
51,000 in 1995 to about 15,000 in 2001. The increase in flu-related
deaths, despite the introduction of the flu shot, has led
some to say that the importance of receiving the flu vaccination
could be undermined.
The recent flu
death toll pales in comparison to that of the worldwide flu
epidemic in 1918, which killed more than 20 million people,
including 500,000 Americans.
Along with the
elderly, people with diabetes or heart disease are also particularly
vulnerable to influenza. However, only about 30 percent of
this group gets flu shots.
Washington
Post January 8, 2003; Page A03
Yahoo
News January 8, 2003
