Swine Flu More Severe than Seasonal Flu

The H1N1 influenza virus, or swine flu, causes more lung damage in monkeys, mice and ferrets than the seasonal flu, a new study finds. Scientists say it appears to be more severe than the seasonal flu.

In the United States, the number of swine flu cases has exceeded 37,000. It has been confirmed in all 50 states plus District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 211 U.S. residents have died from it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Globally swine flu cases are near 95,000 with more than 400 deaths, according to the WHO.

In Britain, residents worried as swine flu apparently killed an otherwise healthy 7-year-old girl who succumbed just 48 hours after the onset of a sore throat. 

"The H1N1 pandemic ... is unstoppable and therefore that all countries need access to vaccine," Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research, said this week.

However, the number of deaths remains modest compared to seasonal flu, which kills about 36,000 people each year in the United States alone. Seasonal flu tends to subside during summer, but swine flu cases continue to mount. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on June 11.

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