Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagor
What are they basing their figures on? i.e. What % of people that submit with flu-like symptons are actually being tested for H1N1?
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Only a small percentage of people are actually tested for the specific strain of influenza. People who are hospitalized with flu-like symptoms are tested; I believe there is also some more general surveillance testing to monitor the prevalence of different strains in the population, but I'm not positive about that. The latest Canadian data (Oct. 11 to 17) indicated that 16.9% of people tested were positive for influenza (which is higher than normal), of which all but 1 positive test was influenza A (the other was influenza B), and 99.9% of the influenza A cases were 2009 pandemic H1N1 (data from Public Health Agency of Canada). This could either mean that almost all of the influenza going around is 2009 H1N1, or that it's basically the only one that is hospitalizing people.