World is put on alert, not by some terrorists this time but swine flu cases are on a rise around the globe.Mexico is the epicentre of the outbreak, with 103 confirmed and suspected deaths as of Monday and about 400 people hospitalised. In 10 other countries, there have been 57 confirmed or suspected cases, none of them fatal, among people returning from Mexico. The United States has had 20 confirmed cases, Canada six confirmed cases and Spain one case. Several countries from Colombia to New Zealand are investigating suspected cases.
Alarmed by the spread of the swine flu virus, airports around the world have rushed to install temperature scanners to pick out the sick. But fears have been raised that the microbe is proving too clever for modern technology.
Britain’s swine flu toll hit eight today as three more cases were confirmed across the country. Two cases have been diagnosed in London and another in the North East, the Department of Health said this afternoon. The latest British victims emerged after the world was placed on an unprecedented alert for a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
Another three countries – Holland, Switzerland and Peru – confirmed their first cases of the virus today as fears of a widespread outbreak grew. And there was the first case in Washington as the World Bank revealed one of its workers had been preliminarily diagnosed with the killer virus.
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Pakistanis don’t have to worry about swine flu coz we dont eat it. But it could spread if the passengers arriving from one of affected countries are not properly checked.
I think there are no 100 percent preventive measures..checking passengers is not fully effective coz surveillance becomes ineffective when you come across people passing through the ‘window period’. This is the length of time after infection that it takes for a person to develop specific symptoms of the disease. In case of swine flu, the incubation period of the virus is one to four days. So, it is not possible to have 100 per cent effective checks at entry points.’Let’s pray to Allah to save us all from this pandemic.
[...] of the world’s leading virologists warned last night that the swine flu virus shares worrying similarities with Spanish flu – which wiped out 50 million people in 1918 [...]