One in five were infected by pandemic flu: Study
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Jayden Mercado, 4, sits in his mother Yariluz Ocasio's lap while he gets an influenza vaccine at Boston Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts on Jan 10, 2013. More than a fifth of the world's population was infected by the H1N1 virus in the 2009-2010 flu pandemic, according to new estimates released on Friday, Jan 25, 2013. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS, Jan 25, 2013 (AFP) - More than a fifth of the world's population was infected by the H1N1 virus in the 2009-2010 flu pandemic, according to new estimates released today.
The study confirms warnings that so-called swine flu was highly contagious.
It also estimates that the flu's lethality - as previously reported - was low.
Between 20 and 27 per cent of people were infected by the virus, the investigators reported in a specialist journal, Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses.
