PANDEMIC
Disease: Influenza
Estimated Death Toll: 203,000
Location: Worldwide
The 2009 flu pandemic or swine flu was an influenza pandemic that lasted from early 2009 to late 2010, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus, albeit in a new version. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1 which resulted when a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, leading to the term “swine flu”. It is estimated that 11–21% of the then global population, or around 700–1400 million people contracted the illness — more in absolute terms than the Spanish flu pandemic. However, with about 150,000–575,000 fatalities, it had a much lower case fatality rate of 0.01-0.08%. Wikipedia Reference »