Quote:
Originally Posted by dreams
And it really doesn't help that we get TV and news reports like this... (after the emergency WHO meeting)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/swine_flu...9yYWlzZXNwYW4-
GENEVA – The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent.
WHO says the phase 5 alert means there is sustained human to human spread in at least two countries. It also signals that efforts to produce a vaccine will be ramped up.
WHO has confirmed human cases of swine flu in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain. Mexico and the U.S. have reported deaths. |
But the "alert level" says nothing about how
serious the disease is; just how wide-spread it is. Level 4 means that the only cases outside the source country are due to travellers returning from the source country; level 5 (where we are now) means that there have been cases reported of person-to-person transmission in countries other than the source (this has now happened in the UK, for example). Outside Mexico, this really
doesn't seem to be a very serious illness, even if you are unfortunate enough to get it.