That's not the way they do it for other diseases, so, no, the mortality rate remains high; over 5% now.
For all other diseases, the MR is the number of deaths/number of reported cases, not the number of people who test positive for antibodies. Why should this disease be any different?
For other diseases, there is no testing of the general population. If you don't enter the health-care system, you don't have flu. Stay home with the flu; you don't have flu. Go to school or work sick with the flu? Same story.
How CDC Estimates the Burden of Seasonal Influenza in the U.S.
The burden of influenza on the United States can vary widely from season to season and is affected by a number of factors including the characteristics of circulating viruses, the timing of the season, population immunity to circulating viruses, how well influenza vaccines are working, and how many people have gotten vaccinated. While the impact of influenza varies from season to season, it places a substantial burden on the health of people in the United States each year.
CDC uses a mathematical model to estimate the numbers of influenza illnesses, medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States, ( 1-4) as well as, the impact of influenza vaccination on these numbers. The methods used to calculate the burden of influenza have been described previously ( 1-2). More recently, the same model was adopted to estimate influenza-associated deaths in the United States. This methodology has been used to retroactively calculate influenza burden, including deaths, going back to 2010.
This page includes information on current and past methods for estimating the number of influenza illnesses, medical visits, influenza-associated hospitalizations, and influenza-associated deaths that occur in the U.S. during a given season.
cdc.gov |
