case fatality rate

noun

variants or case-fatality rate or less commonly case fatality ratio or case-fatality ratio

plural case fatality rates or case-fatality rates also case fatality ratios or case-fatality ratios

: the ratio between deaths and confirmed or reported cases of a specific disease or medical condition within a given time period

Among the immunocompetent patients who had invasive pneumococcal infections caused by serotypes represented in the vaccine, the case fatality rate was 33 percent (23 of 70) among those who had been vaccinated and 25 percent (186 of 738) among those who had not.

—Eugene D. Shapiro et al.

If untreated, the case-fatality rate of inhaled anthrax exceeds 80%.

—The Journal of the American Medical Association

—abbreviation CFR

Examples of case fatality rate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

It was first detected in chickens in Scotland way back in 1959, and between January 2003 and December 2023, 882 human cases were reported across 23 countries, with a case fatality rate of 52 percent. —David Cox, WIRED, 11 Apr. 2024

The global case fatality rate of COVID-19 is around two percent. —Nathan Levine, Foreign Affairs, 16 Mar. 2021

That’s partially because of the high case fatality rate of the viruses, as well as the fact that fruit bats that harbor them migrate globally, facilitating wide spread. —Erin Prater, Fortune Well, 24 June 2023

But a large study published in February suggested that by the time the Omicron variant had spread across the globe, its case fatality rate was 0.239%. —Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, 11 May 2023

For instance, Italy’s case fatality rate is 14 percent, while India’s is just two percent. —T. Jacob John, Foreign Affairs, 11 Sep. 2020

Airfinity’s conclusions are based on 150,000 simulations modeling various potential pathogens, which range in infectiousness, starting outbreak size, the population of the country of outbreak, and case fatality rate. —Eleanor Pringle, Fortune Well, 18 Apr. 2023

According to the World Health Organization, past outbreaks have had case fatality rates of between 24% and 88% with an average rate of 50%. —Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 7 Apr. 2023

With previous outbreaks, case fatality rates have ranged from 24% to 88%, with an average fatality rate of around 50%. —Katia Hetter, CNN, 29 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1912, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

case fatality rate

noun

variants or case-fatality rate also case fatality ratio or case-fatality ratio

: the ratio between deaths and confirmed or reported cases of a specific disease or medical condition within a given time period

Among the immunocompetent patients who had invasive pneumococcal infections caused by serotypes represented in the vaccine, the case fatality rate was 33 percent (23 of 70) among those who had been vaccinated and 25 percent (186 of 738) among those who had not.

—Eugene D. Shapiro et al., The New England Journal of Medicine

An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 cases of invasive group A streptococcal infections occur each year in the United States; of these, necrotizing fasciitis occurs in five to 10 percent, and the case-fatality rate is 28 percent.

—Harvey B. Simon, Scientific American Medicine

—abbreviation CFR