Does the panic go too fast?

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/04/090429_swine_flu_xns_sl.shtml

The World Health Organisation has raised the alert level for the outbreak of swine flu indicating that a pandemic is imminent.

However, while this new swine flu virus continues to spread slowly around the world, the number of confirmed deaths caused by it remains quite low.
The BBC's Matt McGrath reports:

What was once one of the noisiest, dirtiest, busiest places in the world, has become strangely sterile; a quiet city, where many people wear masks outdoors, and most don't go out. The outbreak is costing a fortune.

In Mexico City alone, the mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, has put the figure at $88m a day. But how much will swine flu hit the wider Mexican economy?

The BBC's Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker reports.

The Egyptian government has announced that they intend to cull all the country's pigs as a precautionary measure to protect the country from swine flu.

Egypt has been hit hard by the highly pathogenic bird flu virus, from which 33 people have died in just the last week.

Experts fear any flu pandemic can spread quickly in Egypt with a devastating impact in the overcrowded slums in and around Cairo, from where the BBC's Christian Fraser reports.

Source:http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/16068/flu-screening-bolstered-as-asian-cases-confirmed

Flu screening bolstered as Asian cases confirmed

Thailand has tightened its checking and screening measures to prevent a possible outbreak of swine flu following reported infections in Asia.

Is Thailand ready for a pandemic?

On Friday, Hong Kong confirmed its first case of flu, followed shortly by a case in South Korea.

In Thailand, two people are being quarantined for medical assessment after they came down with flu-like symptoms, officials said.

Health officials are gearing up for the arrival of a group of 14 Thai students and volunteers from Mexico, where the flu broke out, said Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart. The group, the first to come from Mexico since the outbreak, will undergo a thorough health examination at the airport. Any diagnosed with symptoms will be admitted to hospital, while those cleared will be allowed to go home but will remain under surveillance for seven days.

Maj-Gen Sanan, who chairs the panel monitoring swine flu, said the families of the 14 will be informed of any precautionary measures.

He will ask cabinet on Tuesday to approve the purchase of 10 infra-red thermal scanners worth 150 million baht.

The heat-detecting devices will be installed at airports and border checkpoints as part of stepped-up surveillance for the flu. Maj-Gen Sanan and Deputy Health Minister Manit Nopamornbode yesterday inspected the quarantine centre at Suvarnabhumi airport where six scanners have been installed.

A bout 180,000 passengers have been scanned over the past five days.

"A few dozen were found to have high fever but we checked carefully and found that none had contracted this new influenza," said Mr Manit. Passakorn Akarasewee, of the Communicable Diseases Control department, said the patients under health quarantine - a 42-year-old woman and 46-year-old man - are staying at state hospitals. He said initial test results showed the woman was free of the flu, but more tests were under way.

The male patient is being closely monitored. He returned from a trip to France and Italy on May 1 with a fever.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he is confident the Asean health ministers meeting in Bangkok this week will strengthen flu defences around the region.

Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090503/ZNYT04/905033008

Outbreak in Mexico May Be Smaller Than Feared

The World Health Organization announced on Saturday an increase in the number of confirmed cases of swine flu, but said there was no evidence of sustained community spread outside of North America, which would lead to raising the pandemic alert.

Workers at the Naval Hospital in Mexico City wore protective gear Friday in the area where people with possible flu symptoms were checking in.

“At the present time, I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent because we are seeing transmission to other countries,” Dr. Michael J. Ryan, the director of the World Health Organization global alert and response team, said in a teleconference on Saturday from Geneva.

“We have to expect that Phase 6 will be reached. We have to hope that it is not.”

The organization said that 15 countries had reported a total of 615 cases of the infection, officially known as influenza A(H1N1), up from 367 cases late Friday. Dr. Ryan said that several countries in Europe reported additional confirmed cases on Saturday, including France, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Israel, but he added: “There are a very small number of cases, it is very limited. At this stage it would be unwise to say that those events are out of control.”

My stance

Swine flu, a deadly strain of influenza that distracts mankind’s attention from other pressing issues, is the negative hype of this moment, as with any other previous pandemics. This flu originated from Mexico and it is still doubtful how it was transmitted to humans, though the death toll has just reached 160 at the end of the first week after the outbreak. Shortly after the outbreak, the situation was ranked in phase 3 on a 6-point scale, indicating the severity and spread of the virus; now it is in phase 5 after a child in Texas was pronounced dead as a result of swine flu infection.

As a logical result, everyone is now alert and wary of the situation. Governments in many countries put on double surveillance of visitors from swine flu affected countries. This brings about the question whether we are well prepared or overact to these circumstances?

The fact is that swine flu is very similar to seasonal Influenza. Fortunately; the proportion of afflicted patients with swine flu potentially causing fatal death is much lower than those dying from seasonal Influenza. But what WHO is concerned about is that swine flu can spread throughout the community much faster than seasonal flu. Humans are much more susceptible to this virus. In other words, though the number of swine flu infections is much lower than that of seasonal flu infections, the former may surpass the latter as a direct result of the ease with which swine flu spreads. With this attribute, it is a very bad news for us.

Compared to the past pandemic, Bird flu killed 774 lives but it is less severe than swine flu in terms of vulnerability to infection. Bird flu never transmitted from human to human but swine flu does: this is a medical fact.

Asia transcends others continents on how to handle this situation due to the previous lessons it has learned. Correspondingly, there has only been one case of infection in Hong Kong. It concerns a traveler who flew from Mexico. Hence, we should better judge this contagion as a new thing, not a mankind-threatening issue, so as not to panic and intensify the fallout from overreacting.

In these hard times, the best approaches to subdue the pandemic’s resulting chaos are accurate information, no exaggeration or overreaction, and education. It was so pity for Mexico that it has to face this hardship and, even worse, additional misunderstanding that directly deteriorated Mexico’s economy. This deterioration was incurred because many countries banned the import of pork from Mexico. In fact, consuming pork will never cause or cause the swine flu.

For Thailand, We are half a world away from the epicenter of the virus. We should be vigilant owing to the fact that prevention is much easier than cure. Any non-essential visits to affected countries should be called off. Be that as it may, in our country, this contagion is seemingly not as critical as Thailand has no direct flights from Mexico. Moreover, International airports are operated with thermal scanners to ensure the identification and isolation of possibly infected travelers. Quarantine facilities are in place for suspected cases of swine flu infection. Several tips like how to wash your hands properly and encouraging taxi drivers in BKK to wear facemasks are practical and viable ideas.

International cooperation is arranged in many regions. In East Asia, Thailand is spearheading the convention aiming to eliminate or at least alleviate the spread of the swine flu that may occur within the region. Also, anti-influenza medicines are stockpiled approximately to the amount of 4,000,000 dosages that will enable the hospitalization of over 200,000 patients, if necessary. Hosting the conference this time, Thailand has to assure the world that there will be no recurrence of protestors’ disturbance, which inconvenienced the visiting leaders immensely.

The bottom line is: there are several aspects implicated in the outbreak. We may trace it back to the global warming issue whether the simmering temperature bring back the savage disease. Anyway, bear in mind that the mechanism of nature is so amazing that our world always keeps the population of the living creatures in the eco-system balance. Mankind has come across many incurable diseases and wars. Despite the ultimate efforts of world leaders to prevent these catastrophes, these catastrophes have prevented overpopulation of the world. Similarly, this outbreak may signal part of the inevitable balance and adjustment.