Looked it up on the World Health Organization website. In regards to influenza,
“Worldwide, these annual epidemics are estimated to result in about 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness, and about 290 000 to 650 000 respiratory deaths.“
Something doesn’t make sense or it is late and I should go to bed? If someone can point out where my confusion is, I would appreciate it.
Looked these numbers up too now:
World population: 7.7 billion
US population: 0.328 billion or 4.26% of the world
Canada population: 0.037 billion or 0.48% of the world
From the Government of Canada website:
“Each year in Canada, it is estimated that influenza causes approximately:
- 12,200 hospitalizations
- 3,500 deaths”
From the CDC website:
“CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010.”
If we take the averages (except for the Canadian number because that one is provided as one ambiguous number):
Worldwide: 470,000 flu related respiratory deaths
Canada: 3,500 or 0.74% of the world
USA: 36,500 or 7.77% of the world
Where am I wrong? Is “respiratory” the key word and we account for illness related deaths differently? The percentages of population and flu related deaths are pretty consistent in the US and Canada. It has gotta be that world number that is screwing with my head.
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