"252 Flu Deaths Last Year... Deaths Increased During H1N1 and MERS Outbreaks"

Shin Hyun-young "720 Deaths Due to 2018 Cold Wave... Government Must Provide Accurate Statistics"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] The number of deaths caused by influenza (flu) infection last year was recorded as 252.

On the 26th, Shin Hyun-young, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that this was the result of analyzing the flu mortality rate over the past 10 years using death statistics data from Statistics Korea.

Death statistics are compiled based on death certificates where the attending physician medically determines that the cause of death was due to flu infection, which can be considered cases directly related to death caused by the flu.

According to the analysis, the flu mortality rate has shown a gradual increasing trend over the past 10 years. The number of flu deaths was 238 in 2015, 223 in 2016, 262 in 2017, 720 in 2018, and 252 in 2019.

In particular, the number of deaths in 2018 surged to 720. It is analyzed that the increase in related deaths during 2017-2018 may have been influenced by the cold wave compared to previous years, and the varying accuracy of flu vaccine predictions each year likely affected the flu mortality rate.

Additionally, the shift from primarily administering trivalent flu vaccines to an increasing use of quadrivalent flu vaccines may have contributed to the decrease in flu deaths in 2019 compared to 2018.

Representative Shin said, "Even if the cause of death is recorded as 'death due to flu' on the death certificate, some cases are counted as pneumonia deaths, so there are limitations in concluding that flu deaths have surged based solely on this data."

Generally, flu deaths increase from December, peak in January and February of the following year, and decrease in March and April.

Especially in years when infectious diseases such as the H1N1 flu (2009) and MERS (2015) were prevalent, deaths caused by the flu showed an increasing trend with 154 and 238 deaths respectively.

Representative Shin stated, "In a situation where many citizens are concerned about the flu vaccine due to reports of deaths following flu vaccination, it is particularly important for the government, including the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, to provide accurate statistical data for crisis communication. However, it is regrettable that there are still limitations in clearly distinguishing between flu and pneumonia as causes of death in Korea's death statistics."

She continued, "The occurrence of flu itself in 2019-2020 also relatively decreased due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), so proper flu vaccination and hygiene management in line with the principles of the infectious disease era are important for public health," emphasizing, "A systematic government system is needed to accurately determine causes of death following vaccination."