WHO: Swine Moving Closer to Pandemic

Associated Press reports indicated today that World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Wednesday that the swine virus outbreak is moving closer to becoming a pandemic. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the flu chief at WHO had indicated that the organization is closer to raising its pandemic alert level to "phase 5", only one lower than the maximum alert level of "phase 6" (the highest level of phase 6 represents a full scale devastating pandemic).

This is not good news for our country. This is not good news for the world. The Spanish Flu pandemic that terrorized the world in 1918 killed almost 25 million people around the world. The Swine Virus does have the potential to cause huge impact on the scale of 1918 pandemic.

Multiple countries in the world have already reported that they have Swine Virus infections in their country.

Ten states in America reported that their citizens were infected with the virus. New Zealand already has discovered 44 suspected cases of swine virus influenza. Scotland reported that a couple, who went on a honeymoon to Mexico, came back with swine virus influenza. Canada, Israel, Germany, Austria, Britain and Spain have all reported cases of swine virus influenza.

Cuba has already taken the precautionary step of blocking all flights from Mexico. Many Asian nations have taken the precautionary measure of monitoring / screening at their airports and borders, to prevent the infiltration of the virus into their country. Egypt's government has ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution.

It is essential that every country in the world take precaution in preparing for this, without politicizing this. It is essential that every country in the world do everything they can to fight the pandemic, without having the mindset of not letting a good crisis go to waste, without trying to use the crisis to push the ruling party's political agendas.

Ref:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090429/ap_on_he_me/swine_flu_world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_pandemic#Spanish_Flu_.281918.E2.80.931920.29

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1691219/swine_flu_are_we_going_to_die.html?cat=5

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1691979/swine_influenza_the_dow_and_nasdaq.html?cat=3