Updated WHO figures on H5N1

Coming on the heels of the news that the Chinese soldier with bird flu has died, and also an Indonesian teenager has died of H5N1, the WHO has released the latest tally of Bird Flu Deaths and Cases Total by Country.

	DEATHS	CASES TOTAL
AZERBAIJAN	5	8
CAMBODIA	7	7
CHINA	16	25
DJIBOUTI	0	1
EGYPT	14	34
INDONESIA*	79	99
IRAQ	2	3
LAOS	2	2
NIGERIA	1	1
THAILAND	17	25
TURKEY	4	12
VIETNAM	42	93
TOTAL:	189	310

* - I added the latest Indonesian case (and death) into the list as it had not been added to the official WHO list.

The total deaths to cases ratio leaves us with a mortality rate of 60.967%, meaning about 6 out of every 10 bird flu cases result in death.

However, a more accurate mortality rate can be derived from averaging the mortality rate of all countries reporting H5N1 cases, which I went ahead and calculated.

The average mortality rate for the 11 countries reporting cases is 60.05%, and the median is 64% (which happens to be China, who I guess wants to be in the middle of everything)

I think the big surprise here is that there's a country out there named Djibouti. Seriously, I've never heard of it before! Here's the CIA World Factbook entry about it. Apparently it's a North African country next to Somalia that is "slightly smaller than Massachusetts."