Word: viruses
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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...
...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...
That's not to say that very strict restrictions wouldn't have some effect on slowing the virus. In a 2006 study, Harvard epidemiologists John Brownstein and Kenneth Mandl examined the effect of the sharp reduction in air travel after the Sept. 11 attacks on that year's flu season. They found that the initial flight ban and general decline in air travel in the weeks after delayed the onset of the flu season but did little to reduce the overall number of infections and deaths that year...
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...
...million, respectively. But doctors live in fear of a killer like the 1918 Spanish flu, which caused up to 100 million deaths. Undertakers were so overwhelmed that corpses were left inside homes for days. Cities passed laws requiring citizens to wear masks in public places, but the virus defeated that barrier; little stemmed the spread of the disease. From 1917 to 1918, average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped an amazing 12 years. Cruelly, the 1918 virus was particularly lethal in young and healthy people, who are usually more resistant to flu. The disease seemed to trigger a massive overreaction...