Word: virus
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...global rise in swine flu has showed few signs of slowing. Now in 11 countries, the H1N1 flu virus was confirmed on Thursday in the Netherlands and Switzerland; in Canada, cases rose to 27 and in the U.S., the caseload increased to 109 in 11 states, with hundreds of school closures that sent some 160,000 students home. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that a new flu pandemic is imminent, yet some pharmacies (in New York City at least) are temporarily running short of the antiviral Tamiflu. So, no one would blame you for feeling scared about...
...when people get scared, they sometimes say or do dumb things. That includes Vice President Joseph Biden, who said Thursday morning on the Today show that the swine flu virus could spread easily on airplanes, and that he has advised his family against traveling anywhere on mass transit. "When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft," Biden told Today host Matt Lauer. "I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway." (See the top 5 swine...
...subway cars can be a vector for disease transmission if sick people are on board. You can catch the flu if you're within about six feet of a sick person - otherwise known as the "breathing space" - who coughs or sneezes on you, and a small amount of the virus can survive on inanimate surfaces. But with just a tiny number of cases in the U.S. right now, there's little risk that you'll encounter a sick person - certainly not enough to make it worth becoming a shut-in. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine...
...misconceptions spread quickly during the early stages of a new disease outbreak. In Egypt, authorities culled some 300,000 pigs - even though there was no evidence that the H1N1 virus was circulating in these pigs or was actively passing from pigs to people. In France, authorities have said they want to ban flights to and from Mexico, even though WHO officials and other epidemiologists say such extreme measures are likely to hurt far more than they'll help. (The E.U. rejected the French request on Thursday.) "The risk of collateral damage [on top of the flu] is very real," says...
...told me they needed some samples to be sent to Mexico because her disease had been so different, so I let them." The results of the biopsies of Adela's lungs and liver would help send Mexico and the world into a panic: she had the H1N1 swine flu virus and was the first known fatality. On the day she died, the state of Oaxaca notified the Ministry of Health that it had a case of atypical swine flu; and on Sunday, Health Minister Dr. Martin Vazquez recognized Oaxaca as being the state that started the alert. (Though other affected...