Word: spreads
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Once the virus has spread beyond its initial focus, travel restrictions just aren't effective," says Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Washington. With 4,000 flights a day between the U.S. and Mexico, "it's not worth the social disruption it would cause...
...data matches computer models run by biostatisticians like Longini, who found that even the strictest limits on air travel would only slow the start of a flu pandemic, not stop its spread. But, again, while that strategy may benefit countries that have not yet been infected with swine flu, there's still no way to know when it would be safe to lift those restrictions. "There's no question that air travel spreads the flu," says Mandl, a physician and researcher at the informatics program at Children's Hospital Boston and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School...
...Mexico border is concerned, attempting to actually close it would be futile, since countless illegal migrants cross over to the U.S. daily. Trying to stop movement may just push travelers, and the spread of the swine flu, underground. It would create a diplomatic headache as well - the Mexican government has already expressed its concern over travel restrictions. (See pictures of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico...
What works better are social-distancing actions on a local level - closing schools, having employees work at home and limiting public gatherings, where the flu can spread easily. Such methods worked during the deadly 1918 Spanish flu - cities that acted quickly to close schools and theaters early in the pandemic had peak death rates 50% lower than cities that acted more slowly. Today doctors could also prophylactically administer antiviral drugs to the close contacts of any swine flu patients, a strategy that has been shown to help prevent the spread of the flu. "Until you start to see really massive...
Ultimately, however, in a world as truly interconnected as ours, we can no more cloister a single country than we could cut off a limb. The world has become increasingly one - as the rapid spread of the swine flu virus from country to country shows. "It is really all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," says the WHO's Chan. Whatever happens next with the swine flu - whether it burns out or sharpens - we're in this together...