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World health officials race to stem deadly swine flu

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Alert level upto phase 4 is good enough to bring Tamiflu stocks level to zero. Then? Before the first batches of swine flu vaccine could be ready, flu will fly away...virus will disappear.

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America, under Obama, still has no Secretary of Health and Human Services or appointees in any of the department’s 19 key posts. We have no surgeon general. We have no head at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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In 1918 the virus subsided then returned in a more virilent form. This is something to take quite seriously. The flu of 1918 killed more solidiers than the war. That is nothing to dismiss.

Imagine a flu outbreak in Tokyo or Hong Kong. It would be impossible to control and impossible to stop. The medical system here would fall over due to the strain imposed upon it. And it would damage the economy in ways we cannot imagine.

The smart thing to do now is move forward as rapidly as possible with vaccine production and to prepare adequate anti-viral treatments for large populations.

In the mean time, travel limitations make sense. As does strict control of entry points for people coming from infected nations.

Caution today could save both lives and money should things escalate in other countries.

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Who exactly raises these alert levels? Paranoid people?

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Be afraid. WE are not, for those of us from the US that is, going to know anything until there will be political points to be gained.

Taking the strictest measures would have been best, but of course its politically wrong to do.

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I think the strain in Mexico and the others are different. Humans are the same. It should act the same on each of us. Why is it only killing Mexicans? Why don't we offer to help them?

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As the virus passes from human to human it can mutate and become more and more virulent. That is why the WHO is upset with Mexico for letting it go so long before calling the alert.

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letting it go so long before calling the alert." That is part of my point.

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tkoind2: I think there was a "tori influenza" a few years ago in Hong Kong, and somehow they controlled it... please correct me if I am wrong.

I don't understand that they don't suspend all flights coming and going to Mexico. Two friends of mine are flying today to Mexico from Narita. I think I would have cancelled the holiday... It looks already dangerous enough to avoid the place! It's a matter of life or death, I guess they don't cancel the flights to protect the economy... money first.

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Swine flu is not swine flu everywhere, I've just discovered. Unwilling to be like everyone else in the world, Israel has decided it does not like the name of the recent flu outbreak used by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the rest of the normal world. So Israel has decided to re-name the "Swine Flu" to the "Mexican Flu" yes, you read that right. Only ONE place in the whole wide world where the virus is NOT called "Swine Flu" is Israel. Story: Israeli Health Minister Yakov Litzman has been updating a nervous public on the swine flu epidemic - and he started by renaming it for religious reasons. "We will call it Mexican flu. We won't call it swine flu," said Mr Litzman, who belongs to the ultra-religious United Torah Judaism party. Link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8021301.stm You heard it here first people: WE have swine flu, but Israel has Mexican flu. Howzabouthat!

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LIBERTAS at 12:02 AM JST - 29th April

I am sure that I speak for everybody here when I say that we are all deeply & humbly grateful for the life saving information you have shared with us.

There again given that there are no Israelis on this site (that I know of) I can’t for the life of me see what this has got to do anything except your personal crusade against Israel.

Spanishwoman at 03:50 PM JST - 28th April

Originally I reasoned like most people that the Mexico outbreak was in Mexico city & having seen that city I could well understand how that could be, there are some nasty dark places there. But I read a little earlier today that the two British people infected had just come back from Cancun & I have friends that stay there last year & they called Cancun a luxury prison camp because all the holiday package was just that, a closed package, everything on one enormous site. If that is the case then it would that all of Mexico should be off limits, at least for a few weeks until the picture is clearer. I think you will find that your friends can cancel or rearrange their holiday without loss of money, it depends on the company but I have read that some companies in Europe have already offered to change bookings. It’s worth asking about.

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