Influenza-Related Mortality
Considerations for Practice and Public Health
- David M. Morens, MD
- Author Affiliation: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
In this issue of THE JOURNAL, the article by Thompson and colleagues1 estimates the burden of annual influenza mortality and provides much new and challenging information. The basic mortality question under consideration is what causes excess deaths during annual winter influenza "seasons"? Such mortality excesses can be estimated reasonably well from available data, but it is another problem entirely to determine what proportion is actually due to influenza. Traffic deaths, fire deaths, and other death categories can also increase during the same months.
Cause-of-death data are not very helpful because death certificate recordings are inaccurate for many conditions and probably more so for elderly persons, for institutionalized individuals, and for those who succumb to the combined effects of different medical conditions. Population mortality data cannot determine who did and did not have influenza. Traditional influenza mortality accounting is therefore insensitive (ie, unable to detect all influenza deaths that occur). …
