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发帖数: 1 | 1 The flu remains a higher threat to U.S. public health than the new
coronavirus.
This flu season alone has sickened at least 19 million across the U.S. and
led to 10,000 deaths and 180,000 hospitalizations.
Roughly a dozen cases of the deadly coronavirus have been identified in the
U.S., though the number has mushroomed across its outbreak zone in China.
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Brent Lewis | The Denver Post | Getty Images
While the new coronavirus ravages much of China and world leaders rush to
close their borders to protect citizens from the outbreak, the flu has
quietly killed 10,000 in the U.S. so far this influenza season.
At least 19 million people have come down with the flu in the U.S. with 180,
000 ending up in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The flu season, which started in September and can run until
May, is currently at its peak and poses a greater health threat to the U.S.
than the new coronavirus, physicians say. The new virus, which first
emerged in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, has sickened roughly 17,400 and killed
362 people mostly in that country as of Monday morning.
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“In the U.S., it’s really a fear based on media and this being something
new,” Dr. Jennifer Lighter, hospital epidemiologist at NYU Langone Health,
said of the new coronavirus. “When in reality, people can take measures to
protect themselves against the flu, which is here and prevalent and has
already killed 10,000 people.”
The coronavirus outbreak, however, is proving to be more deadly than the flu
. It has killed roughly 2% of the people who have contracted it so far,
according to world health officials. That compares with a mortality rate of
0.095% for the flu in the U.S., according to CDC estimates for the 2019-2020
flu season. The CDC estimates that 21 million people will eventually get
the flu this season.
“Two percent case fatality is still a tough case fatality when you compare
it to the case fatality for the seasonal flu or other things,” Dr. Mike
Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, told
reporters Wednesday.
“A relatively mild virus can cause a lot of damage if a lot of people get
it,” he added. “And this is the issue at the moment. We don’t fully
understand it.”
2020 Flu impact US all strains
Though some health-care professionals and analysts believe the number of
coronavirus cases to be much higher, which would mean a lower mortality rate.
“I think we’re going to find that the mortality number is going to be
lower,” Lighter said. “There is more than likely many times that number of
people that have mild (cases) or are asymptomatic.”
“It may end up being comparable to a bad flu season,” Lighter added.
If that’s the case, that would bode well for the virus’s mortality rate,
pathogens specialist Dr. Syra Madad told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” It would
bring the mortality rate much lower, she pointed out, if there were 100,000
cases and only 362 deaths rather than 10,000 cases with 362 deaths.
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“If we’re saying over 100,000 cases, the overall severity of the disease
goes down,” she said. “The risk to the general American public is low,”
Madad said, though it’s still “very concerning.”
The two viruses have similar symptoms, which some health officials fear will
cause misdiagnoses. Common flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat
and aches. Coronavirus symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath
, according to the CDC.
For now, Lighter stressed that the public should focus on the flu, which is
affecting children especially hard this season. She urged people to get
their flu shots, if they haven’t already, and practice good hygiene. If
they’re near someone sick, she said to stand three feet away at all times.
“We are prepared at NYU to see patients that have coronavirus,” she said.
“But we need to remain focused on our patients in our hospital.”
20200202 Coronavirus global spread area chart |
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