By John Lauerman
May 11 (Bloomberg) -- The swine flu strain spreading around the world rivals the severity of the 1957 “Asian flu” pandemic, which was about four to eight times more deadly than a typical seasonal flu epidemic, scientists said.
About four out of 1,000 people who were infected with the H1N1 strain in Mexico by late April died, according to a study published today in the journal Science that was led by Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College London. The 1957 pandemic killed about 2 million people, while seasonal flu epidemics cause 250,000 to 500,000 deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization.
A “moderate” pandemic characteristic of the 1957 Asian flu could kill 14.2 million people and shave 2 percent from the global economy in the first year, the World Bank said in October. A worldwide outbreak as severe as the Spanish flu that hit in 1918 might cause from 180 million to 260 million deaths, the bank said then.
“While substantial uncertainty remains, clinical severity appears less than that seen in 1918 but comparable with that seen in 1957,” the authors of the Science study said today.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayabfZiRzDJA&refer=home# 
