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When the World Health Organization declared the official end earlier this month of the H1N1 influenza pandemic, few people mustered a shrug.
No one stopped the presses. No one threw a parade. Less than a year and a half after ?swine flu? infected the public imagination with apocalyptic fears, the virus ? and the short-lived hysteria it spawned ? is already a footnote, a historical blip, a one-hit wonder.
Although H1N1 infected millions worldwide, leaving thousands dead, the crisis mentality faded quickly because influenza annually infects millions and kills thousands.
?The death rate wasn?t really that different overall,? said Dr. Michael David, an epidemiologist and historian of medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Despite early reports of unusual virulence and alarming transmissibility, David said, last year?s pandemic strain turned out to be only marginally more contagious ? and probably slightly less lethal ? than the average seasonal flu.
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No one stopped the presses. No one threw a parade. Less than a year and a half after ?swine flu? infected the public imagination with apocalyptic fears, the virus ? and the short-lived hysteria it spawned ? is already a footnote, a historical blip, a one-hit wonder.
Although H1N1 infected millions worldwide, leaving thousands dead, the crisis mentality faded quickly because influenza annually infects millions and kills thousands.
?The death rate wasn?t really that different overall,? said Dr. Michael David, an epidemiologist and historian of medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Despite early reports of unusual virulence and alarming transmissibility, David said, last year?s pandemic strain turned out to be only marginally more contagious ? and probably slightly less lethal ? than the average seasonal flu.
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