Flu Kills One-Third Fewer in U.S. Yearly Than Previous Estimate

Influenza killed an average 23,607 people each year in the last three decades, one-third fewer than the 36,000 estimate previously used to weigh the severity of a flu season, a U.S. study found.

The 36,000 figure, cited by thousands of media stories during last year’s swine flu pandemic, was based on a 2003 report that examined data from the 1990s. That was a particularly deadly decade for flu strains and the resulting estimate overstated the impact of the flu, according to the study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today’s research looked at data from 1976 to 2007.