Swine Flu Death Toll in 2009 Believed 10 Times Worse Than First Reported

So the panic was justified. Sort of.

The swine-flu pandemic of 2009 may have killed up to 203,000 people worldwide - 10 times higher than the first estimates based on the number of cases confirmed by lab tests, according to a new analysis by an international group of scientists.

The researchers also found almost 20-fold higher rates of respiratory deaths in some countries in the Americas than in Europe. Looking only at deaths from pneumonia that may have been caused by the flu, they found that Mexico, Argentina and Brazil had the highest death rates from the pandemic in the world.