Monday, April 27, 2009
I was involved in several conversations over the weekend with folks from Harvard Medical School and Staywell Consumer Health Publishing about the current swine flu outbreak. It's becoming increasingly clear that this epidemic – now found in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Spain – has broken through to be called a pandemic.
Indications are that most of the cases that have spread beyond Mexico's border, like the school in Queens, NY, or the cases across Spain, have been the result of travel to and from specific regions within Mexico. But with the introduction of NAFTA years ago, the amount of business travel to Mexico has increased greatly and we can expect these cases to continue showing up across the country.
At this point, while the death toll in Mexico climbs, the US health care system has been able to deal with the disease. How long we can control both the severity and spread remains to be seen, of course, but there are some can do to prepare and prevent swine flu from hitting home.
Harvard Medical School offers an overview on their site of things each of us need to know, as well as a more complete Special Health Report covering swine flu in detail:
Labels: infectious diseases, swine flu
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