2009 swine flu outbreak was 15 times deadlier: study

euters) - The swine flu pandemic of 2009 killed an estimated 284,500 people, some 15 times the number confirmed by laboratory tests at the time, according to a new study by an international group of scientists.

The study, published on Tuesday in the London-based journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, said the toll might have been even higher - as many as 579,000 people.

The original count, compiled by the World Health Organization, put the number at 18,500.

Those were only the deaths confirmed by lab testing, which the WHO itself warned was a gross underestimate because the deaths of people without access to the health system go uncounted, and because the virus is not always detectable after a victim dies.

The new 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.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/26/us-swineflu-idUSBRE85O1DF20120626
My company was the first to put a H1N1 vaccine out and I STILL maintain that the deaths in this country were contained by the fact that the govt distrubed the vaccine in a fairly timely manner.