Word: fukuda
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...Spanish-flu pandemic ended only when the virus had infected so many people that it burned itself out. Today, doctors have better tools--antivirals and respirators--that would cut the potential death toll. But influenza is unpredictable. "There's no standard picture for how this develops," says Keiji Fukuda, a top World Health Organization official. We can prepare, but in the end, we're at the mercy of a virus...
...virus. As epidemiologists swarm the country in an effort to trace the virus's spread, the big question remains: Why is the disease seemingly so much more deadly in Mexico than anywhere else? "This will be the object of a great deal of research and attention," said Keiji Fukuda, the interim director-general for health, safety and environment for the World Health Organization (WHO). "But we can't say why there seems to be a difference." (See the five things you need to know about swine...
...difference in severity between Mexico and U.S. cases would suggest that there are different viruses affecting the two countries, researchers have genetically sequenced swine-flu viruses from both Mexican and American victims, and "we see no difference in the viruses infecting sick people and less-sick people," said Fukuda. And even if there were genetic differences, it wouldn't necessarily mean much - scientists still don't know exactly which genes do what on flu viruses...
...both the WHO and CDC have acknowledged that containment is no longer an option. So, while raising the alert level, the WHO also recommended that countries do not close borders or impose travel bans. "Restricting travel would have very little effect on stopping the movement of this virus," said Fukuda. At this point, trying to close borders would be like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted - better to focus on community-level protections like better disease surveillance and hygiene. (Read "Battling Swine Flu: The Lessons from SARS...
...Mexico, where epidemiologists are still working to understand the swine flu outbreak? Uncertainty, however, is unavoidable when it comes to influenza - a shifty, erratic virus that is harder to get a handle on than, well, a greased pig. "There is no standard picture for how this will develop," said Fukuda. "We don't know...