Swine flu could hit up to 40 percent in US

**Stardust** · 07-25-2009, 02:27 PM

http://www.kentucky.com/512/story/873742.html

ATLANTA -- In a disturbing new projection, health officials say up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures.

The estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are roughly twice the number of those who catch flu in a normal season and add greater weight to hurried efforts to get a new vaccine ready for the fall flu season.

Swine flu has already hit the United States harder than any other nation, but it has struck something of a glancing blow that's more surprising than devastating. The virus has killed about 300 Americans and experts believe it has sickened more than 1 million, comparable to a seasonal flu with the weird ability to keep spreading in the summer.

Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories, and the new estimates dramatize the need to have vaccines and other measures in place.

**donathanhurley** · 07-25-2009, 03:16 PM

Thanks for the scare, Stardust.
Haha.

**Stardust** · 07-25-2009, 04:54 PM

donathanhurley Wrote:Thanks for the scare, Stardust.
Haha.

This is getting kind of scarry.

**PC_You_Know** · 07-25-2009, 05:03 PM

I thought this had died off, I hadn't hear about it in a while.

*Central_Cheer_Chick · 07-25-2009, 05:20 PM

Me too. Had no clue it was still going around

**Stardust** · 07-25-2009, 05:41 PM

PC_You_Know Wrote:I thought this had died off, I hadn't hear about it in a while.

A death in Cincinnati over the past few weeks attributed to this.

***Spud6*** · 07-25-2009, 07:44 PM

I thought it had died down also.

**thetribe** · 07-25-2009, 07:45 PM

40 percent is an extremely scary statistic. Hopefully if it does hit more people then it just makes them ill for a brief period and claims no more lives.

**ComfortEagle** · 07-25-2009, 08:18 PM

PC_You_Know Wrote:I thought this had died off, I hadn't hear about it in a while.

It definitely hasn't died off, but Michael Jackson's death is certainly more entertaining news than swine flu.

Anyways, they expect the cases of swine flu to go WAY up this coming flu season. I fully plan on getting a flu shot this year, btw.

**Stardust** · 07-25-2009, 10:23 PM

ComfortEagle Wrote:It definitely hasn't died off, but Michael Jackson's death is certainly more entertaining news than swine flu.

Anyways, they expect the cases of swine flu to go WAY up this coming flu season. I fully plan on getting a flu shot this year, btw.

ditto