The World Health Organization official death toll of the 2009 swine flu pandemic was numbered at 18,500. That figure was based on deaths confirmed by laboratory analysis to be linked to H1N1. A new study, published Tuesday in the London-based journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, estimates the toll to be much higher; at least 15 times the number of deaths confirmed at the time.
The study also shows the pandemic’s impact varied widely by region, with 51 percent of swine flu deaths occurring in Africa and Southeast Asia, which account for only 38 percent of the world’s population.
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