As we begin the week, the influenza outbreak continues to gather steam. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 20 countries have officially reported close to 1,000 cases of A (H1N1) influenza infection.
Of these a little more than half are in Mexico, where 25 people have died from the disease. According to the BBC, more than 200 cases have been confirmed among 30 U.S. states, with more expected in the coming days. The disease remains at a level 5 WHO alert, one step below pandemic status.
With news like this, it’s easy to over-react. But it pays to keep some things – like the disease’s relatively low death rate thus far – in perspective.
After all, this disease has also caused a fair amount of collateral damage. While the WHO does not encourage full-bore border closings or national travel restrictions as a reaction to the outbreak, it does suggest that people who are already ill should delay international travel.
Likewise, groups such as RIMS have suggested restricting nonessential travel, and numerous airlines have reduced flights and have gone to using smaller planes.
Mexico has been particularly hard hit by all of this, as would be any nation that relies on tourism income to any appreciable degree. Toronto certainly learned that the hard way during its experience with SARS.
Perhaps the most dramatic, and most unnecessary, reaction to the outbreak thus far has been the nationwide swine cull in Egypt, which illustrated just how hard the pork industry has been hit by this, and by extension, the secondary businesses (e.g., restaurants, grocery stores) it deals with. Last week, the WHO advised against referring to the outbreak any further as “swine flu,” since it raised inaccurate notions over the safety of pork products. The European Union has done likewise.
This blog will also do the same, referring to the disease henceforth by its proper name, influenza A (H1N1). This denotes that the current influenza outbreak is a type-A H1N1 virus. To prevent further confusion, this blog has also edited past posts to change the name of the disease where necessary.