Word: swine
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With the H1N1 swine flu virus seemingly entrenched in both Mexico and the U.S., and continually surfacing elsewhere, a pandemic may be inevitable - flu viruses are extremely transmissible and hard to control. But that hasn't stopped health officials from trying. In the U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that affected schools "should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible," prompting the closure of schools with confirmed cases - involving some 50,000 students - in several states. At his news conference on Wednesday night, Obama also said that "every American should know that their...
...border with Mexico, a stance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and WHO support and which Obama reiterated at his press conference. "Intensive efforts at the border are not effective means for protecting against an infectious disease," said acting CDC director Richard Besser. Still, if the swine flu continues to worsen in Mexico, it's not hard to see how Obama and other world leaders would come under increasing pressure to try to wall off Mexico - just as an infected patient might be quarantined to prevent the spread of the disease. (Read: "Battling Swine Flu: The Lessons...
Health officials argue that because the H1N1 swine flu virus is already present in so many countries, and readily capable of spreading from person to person, it's far too late to try to isolate one or two countries. Although uninfected countries may be able to delay the introduction of swine flu by imposing draconian limits on international travel, they would not likely be able to stave off the virus for good - and the economic losses resulting from the travel ban may far outweigh any benefits. One 2007 study by the Brookings Institution estimated, for example, that a 95% reduction...
...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...