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This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2008.144659v1 98/11/1928    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Doshi, P. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Doshi, P. Related Collections Epidemiology Immunization/Vaccines Other Infections Mortality Surveillance Other Statistics/Evaluation/Research

Peter Doshi, AM

The author is in the doctoral program in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Peter Doshi, HASTS Program, E51-070, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 (e-mail: pnd@mit.edu).

	Because this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

In studies of influenza mortality, many researchers employ the combined category of recorded influenza and pneumonia deaths as their unit of analysis. Noymer suggests that my study¹ should have done the same. My objective was "to describe trends in historical influenza mortality data ... and compare pandemic with nonpandemic influenza seasons."^1(p939) Therefore, I "primarily considered the relative (rather than absolute) value of recorded influenza death rate statistics, which allowed me to compare 1 influenza season (or 1 month) with another."^1(p943) Some may wonder whether influenza-classified deaths alone are a reliable category of analysis for these purposes. The evidence suggests that . . . [Full Text]