Word: globalization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...swine-flu virus continued its gradual global march on Tuesday, prompting countries to strengthen efforts to stem its spread, while President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in supplementary spending to prepare for a possible swine-flu pandemic and installed the newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to help lead the fight against the disease. In the U.S., the caseload rose to 67 across five states - 45 of them in New York City, where health officials are investigating two new possible outbreaks at city schools - with more virus samples awaiting laboratory confirmation. New Zealand...
...health officials across the globe prepare for the possibility of a global pandemic of swine flu, they have a relatively new weapon in the fight against influenza; antiviral drugs, first developed in the 1990s, have been shown to help treat and prevent influenza. But such drugs have never been used to tackle a widespread outbreak of influenza before, and there are concerns they may quickly prove ineffective...
...Spanish man, for example, have been given Oseltamivir as a precaution. In New Zealand and Mexico, where there are confirmed cases of the disease, the drug has been made available over-the-counter, although pharmacists can exercise discretion about who they sell to. Should the outbreak turn into a global pandemic, there simply aren't enough drugs available for universal use; they will be given only to those suspected of being ill with swine flu, and to front-line healthcare and essential government workers as a prophylactic. (See five things you need to know about swine...
...virus first surfaced, health officials have focused mostly on Asia as the breeding ground for the world's next pandemic flu virus. But Daszak points out that Mexico, where people, pigs and poultry can exist in close proximity, is an overlooked hot spot for new viruses. Given the booming global livestock trade - more than 1.5 billion live animals have been shipped to the U.S. from all over the world in the past decade - it's possible that the A/H1N1 virus originated in an Asian bird that was exported to Mexico, where it may have reassorted in a pig before infecting...
...fairly blame the pigs (indeed, the CDC has officially stopped calling the virus "swine flu," opting instead for the more hog-friendly 2009 H1N1 flu), can we blame Mexico? That charge doesn't stick either. Decades ago, numerous countries came together to develop the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN), which allows epidemiological teams to spot new flu viruses as soon as they emerge and get vaccines ready in time. But the GISN only tracks human flu, meaning animal flu can slip by undetected. What's more, pigs that carry influenza tend not to die en masse the way flocks...