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Swine Flu Latest: Visualized!<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/InformationIsBeautiful/%7E3/XCqRjtxaDBw/> Posted: 01 Sep 2009 02:55 AM PDT <http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informationisbeautiful.net%2F2009%2Fswine-flu-latest-visualized%2F> With the help of the excellent Guardian Datastore<http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/apr/27/flu-flu-pandemic>, we’ve been tracking Swine Flu (”novel H1N1 virus”) as it creeps across the globe and starts to feeds into the autumnal ‘flu season. There are some surprising results. Is the US about to face a pandemic? The USA still has the most cases in the world. The America media are starting to pump out alarming headlines. “200,000 deaths!”.<http://www.rtmagazine.com/reuters_article.asp?id=20090831publ003.html>Here are the current figures. [image: Swine Flu: Countries with most cases Sep 2009] But when you factor in *population sizes*, the USA disappears off the map. (It’s actually 15th in the world) [image: Swine Flu: Most Infected Countries Sep 2009] Fatality rates: Is Swine Flu getting deadlier? When you look at fatality rates for Swine Flu, *the percentage of infected people who die*, the results are depressingly unsurprising. [image: Swine Flu: Fatality rates around the world Sep 2009] Although these nations have much fewer cases than Western nations, far more people are dying. Brazil’s fatality rate is a shocking 10%, against a world-wide average of around 0.3-0.5%. When you compare these worldwide fatality rates against those from mid-July, you see a slightly worrying trend. [image: Swine Flu: Fatality rates July 2009] Swine Flu appears to be becoming more deadly in Latin America. Is this down to Western nations use of Tamiflu? Swine Flu Advisory Here’s the overall data in a table. Media reporting generally only focuses on the first column. But we think the only columns are more relevant. The stand-out statistic from all this is the *US’s death rate* at 1.2%. It’s the only Western nation in the above-average rankings. This is likely to be down to Swine Flu’s particularly lethal interaction with obesity<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/30/swine-flu-obesity-link>. An estimated 34% of American’s are obese (CDC<http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/index.html>) [image: Swine Flu Advisory: September 2009] If you are interested in more, you can see a live interactive table of Swine Flu figures here<http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/swine-flu-the-latest-figures/> . Sources and data in this Google Doc<http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aqe2P9sYhZ2ndHlTeDBXZ2ItYmtSU0hqeWpYcmwyalE&hl=en_GB>. You are subscribed to email updates from Information Is Beautiful<http://www.informationisbeautiful.net> To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now<http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=VmsVbInPtLKSrZcNLLV_t-S_GJU> . Email delivery powered by Google Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610
