Concepts
Case Fatality Rate
Also Known As Case-Fatality Risk
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The case fatality rate (CFR), sometimes called more precisely the case-fatality risk, is the proportion of people diagnosed with a disease who go on to die of it. It is easy to confuse with the mortality rate, but the two answer different questions: the mortality rate measures deaths, from any or a specific cause, against the whole population over a period of time, while the CFR measures deaths only among people already diagnosed with the disease, independent of time or the size of the general population. The measure varies enormously by disease: the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic carried a CFR above 2.5 percent, while rabies is fatal in more than 99 percent of unvaccinated people who develop symptoms.
Facts
Concept ClassSourced to the subject's own accountEpidemiological Measure 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Both are standard outbreak-investigation measures, tracking how many people are affected versus how many affected people die.
In Branch
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Case Fatality Rate
WikipediaLead sectionQuote, Lead section
case fatality rate (CFR) - or sometimes more accurately case-fatality risk - is the proportion of people who have been diagnosed with a certain disease and end up dying of it.
1. Wikipedia: Case Fatality Rate
WikipediaExamples section, Spanish fluQuote, Examples section, Spanish flu
The CFR for the Spanish (1918) flu was greater than 2.5%
1. Wikipedia: Case Fatality Rate
WikipediaExamples section, RabiesQuote, Examples section, Rabies
Rabies has a CFR greater than 99% in unvaccinated individuals
1. Wikipedia: Case Fatality Rate
WikipediaTerminology sectionQuote, Terminology section
The mortality rate - often confused with the CFR - is a measure of the relative number of deaths (either in general, or due to a specific cause) within the entire population per unit of time. A CFR, in contrast, is the number of deaths among the number of diagnosed cases only, regardless of time or total population.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the case fatality rate the same thing as the death rate?
No, and the two are commonly confused. The case fatality rate is the share of people already diagnosed with a specific disease who go on to die of it, so it says how dangerous a disease is once you have it. The (population) mortality rate is the share of an entire population, sick or not, that dies over a period of time, so it says how much death a disease is causing across society as a whole, which also depends on how many people actually catch it.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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