Trivia: It Takes Your Breath Away (Part 1)

Influenza

Influenza is a contagious, viral, respiratory illness.

According to the Centers for Disease Control(CDC), every year in the US, 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu, more than 200,000 are hospitalized due to flu complications, and approximately 36,000 people die from it. And according to Health Canada, in Canada, an estimated 10% to 25% of Canadians get the flu each year, and as many as 500 to 1,500 Canadians die from pneumonia related to flu.

Worldwide, flu causes an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 deaths.

Tuberculosis

Pulmonary TB is a contagious bacterial infection, and while the lungs are primarily involved, the infection can spread to other organs.

World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show that someone in the world is newly infected with TB every second, and one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus. (Based on an approximate global population of six billion, this is approximately two billion infected people.) Five to 10% of those infected become sick or infectious during their lifetime. The WHO estimates that two million people died from TB in 2002. They also estimate that there are 300,000 new cases of the Multidrug-Resistant TB (MDR-TB) worldwide – and that the drug-resistant strains are becoming more resistant and unresponsive to current treatment. Seventy-nine percent of the MDR-TB cases are considered "super strains."

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