us flu reaching epidemic levels, page-29

Nimans in the NYTimes


Henry L. Niman, a flu-watcher who follows state death registries and news reports, counts about 40 pediatric deaths so far and predicted that the total would ultimately be close to the 153 of the 2003-04 season, but much less than in the 2009-2010 “swine flu” pandemic, when 282 children died. That flu was a strain never seen before and many more children caught it. The elderly had surprising resistance to getting it, presumably because similar flus that circulated 40 or more years ago had given them some immunity. But among those elderly who did catch it, the death rates were high.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/health/flu-season-worse-than-average-officials-say.html?smid=tw-&_r=1&