Swine flu pandemic hit 1 in 5 Indians: Study

The H5N1 swine flu pandemic that swept the world in 2009 infected at least one in five Indians,with the highest rates of infection being among children.
A joint study of Imperial College,London and the World Health Organization (WHO) released on Saturday found that 47% of those aged 5 to 19 showed signs of having caught the deadly influenza virus in India.Only 11% of elderly people were infected.Multiple exposures to circulating flu viruses may have given them protection,it deduces.
The study analysed data from 19 countries,including India,UK,US and China,to assess the global impact of the 2009 pandemic and collated results from over two dozen studies involving more than 90,000 blood samples.It showed the virus affected 20-27 % people studied during the first year of the pandemic.The study was published in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses journal on January 26.
Imperial Colleges Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said,This study is the result of a combined effort by more than 27 research groups worldwide,which shared their data to improve our understanding of the impact the pandemic had globally.

Source: TNN