This data was taken from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_10.pdf . The lucky people who get swine flu now will be immunized against this flu when it returns next fall and surely there will be a vaccine available next fall.
Pneumonia is a complication of influenza that causes most of the influenza related deaths although pneumonia is a complication of other respiratory diseases as well. The numbers in the first Table at the top show the deaths by age group for influenza without pneumonia and for pneumonia for 2005. The graph below this table shows these same death rates for all age ranges. This graph clearly shows that most deaths occur in the elderly (>90%). The Table at the bottom shows what causes the most deaths in the same age groups as shown in the Table at the top. This bottom Table puts the danger of Flu in perspective in relation to the other leading causes of death in infants, children and young adults. The swine flu is just another variation of seasonal flu which normally spreads to humans from ducks and other birds. People can give the Flu to pigs and visa versa. All Flu strains come from other animals and the vaccine is grown in chicken eggs (embryos).
