‘Killer pandemic’ turns out to be less dangerous than ordinary flu
Raphael Vassallo
Three new cases of AH1N1 - aka ‘swine flu’ – were identified in Gozo yesterday, but public health experts have meanwhile concluded that the mutated virus is considerably less deadly than influenza, with a mortality rate of only 0.1%.
Leading epidemiologist Dr Julian Mamo, who has been closely monitoring the statistics released by the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease prevention for the past three months, acknowledged this when contacted yesterday.
“The mortality rate has now been fixed at 0.1%,” he said, confirming earlier indications that the so-called ‘intelligent’ virus would not be as dangerous as previously feared.
Health officials have been crunching out numbers in connection with the transmission of the virus, as well as its mortality and convalescence rates, ever since it started spreading last May.
Dr Mamo explains that the latest statistics have been confirmed in an international conference attended by epidemiologists and public health doctors.
The results indicate that although less deadly than expected, the virus is nonetheless transmitted much faster than ordinary flu.
“More people will have the virus than they themselves will know,” Dr Mamo explains. “Most would not even realise they are infected, and will not need medication.”
Despite the good news, caution is still is advised among younger patients, who are more adversely affected than their older counterparts, as their immune system would not yet have been exposed to simialr strains of the virus before.
Similarly, persons who are ‘immuno-depressed’, or physically weakened on account of numerous unrelated physical conditions such as liver or kidney trouble, are likelier to be more seriously affected than others.
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