The Flu season: Percent deaths due to pneumonia/influenza in large cities in weeks ending 25 oct 2008 and 25 Apr 2009

The map shows comparative perecentage of deaths due to pneumonia/influenza for the weeks ending 25th Oct 2008 and 25 Apr 2009, the intermediate period nearly spans a typical flu season in the US. The data is for selected cities (nearly 122) gathered by CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) website from the weekly "voluntary" submission by cities.

The data set uploaded to Finder! also has the number of total deaths due to all causes and number of deaths due to pneumonia/influenza for all the weeks between 25 Oct 2008 and 25 Apr 2009. It appears from the map that there is indeed an increase in percent of deaths due to pneumonia/influenza. (BIG CAVEAT:) However, one cannot say that this increase is due to the Swine Flu A(H1N1) virus now ravaging many places in the world, this is so because CDC has not attributed these deaths to the Swine Flu virus.