Swine Flu May Infect Half of U.S., Kill 90,000, Report Says (Tom Randall)

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu may infect half the U.S. population this year, hospitalize 1.8 million patients, and lead to 90,000 deaths, according to a report by White House advisers.

Thirty percent to 50 percent of the country’s population will be infected in the fall and winter, according to the “plausible scenario” outlined in today’s report by the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. As many as 300,000 patients may require treatment in hospital intensive care units, filling 50 percent to 100 percent of all beds available to those facilities, the study said.

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