Word: viruses
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...were the hundreds of U.S. school closures and the presidential press conferences about hand-washing much ado about not that much? Unfortunately not. As health officials pointed out repeatedly, we're still in the early days of the H1N1 outbreak, and influenza viruses are notoriously unpredictable. Right now the new disease seems to be no more dangerous than the seasonal flu (researchers who have examined the genetic code of the H1N1 virus say it appears to lack key mutations that made past pandemic-causing viruses so deadly), but H1N1 could return next winter in a more lethal form--just...
International health officials who had been on high alert since reports of a new influenza virus first surfaced in late April had also begun to relax--just a bit. Scientists at the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found few serious or deadly cases outside Mexico and little evidence of sustained spread of the disease in most countries. Though by May 6 the virus had infected 1,516 people in 22 countries--including 642 in the U.S., where two people have died from it--and the world was still officially on the brink...
...reality is that while health officials in the U.S. and the rest of the world deserve praise for their comprehensive response to the new flu virus, H1N1 wasn't a true test of our mettle but a warning shot. "We should look at this as a wake-up call, not one more snooze alarm," says Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University...
...outbreaks have been a minor catastrophe for pork producers. Though international health officials were quick to assure the public that the disease initially known as swine flu could not be contracted by eating pork, consumption of pig products dropped rapidly in the wake of the virus's spread. "That is our biggest concern - the economic impact of people shying away from eating our product over fear," C. Larry Pope, CEO of Smithfield Foods, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on May 5. The National Pork Producers Council estimated that between April 24 and May 1 - the most frenzied days...
...Trunnell's claim goes forward, Smithfield will face more serious problems. But that's a big if. Scientists are still far from certain where the H1N1 virus originated or how long it may have been circulating in pigs or people (the first human outbreak is thought to have occurred in February). So far, no pigs have been found to be infected with the virus, other than at one farm in Canada on May 2, where the swine were actually infected by a human worker. And on May 14, Smithfield announced that Mexican authorities had completed tests of the company...