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(CNSNews.com) -- As health care experts and world leaders struggle with the spread of the new corona virus (COVID-19) -- an infectious respiratory illness like influenza (flu) but caused by a different virus -- it merits noting how widespread influenza is in the United States and globally, and how many people die from the flu each year.

As explained by Johns Hopkins Medicine, COVID-19 is "caused by one virus, the novel 2019 coronavirus, now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2." The flu is "caused by any of several different types and strains of influenza viruses."

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According to an estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were approximately 45 million cases of the flu in the United States during the 2017-2018 influenza season, resulting in an estimated 810,000 flu-associated hospitalizations and an estimated 61,000 flu-associated deaths.

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

In the 2016-17 season, there were an estimated 29 million flu cases in the United States; and estimated 497,000 flu-related hospitalizations and 38,000 flu-related deaths. (For comparison, 36,560 people died in car accidents in 2018 in the United States.)

The CDC reports that "between 291,000 and 646,000 people worldwide die from seasonal influenza-related respiratory illnesses each year."





As of Feb. 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) said there were 80,239 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 34 countries.

The WHO also reported that there have been 2,700 deaths from COVID-19.

As of Feb. 25, there were 54 COVID-19 cases in the United States but no deaths reported.

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