Blog 14 (Swine Flu)

Swine flu has taken over the news lately, so this week I decided to write a little bit about it. Just when I thought flu season was coming to an end, I now have to worry about catching a disease form a pig. The way it sounds, Mexico and the United States, as well as the World Health Organization are working to prevent and find a source of this flu, which they fear may become a pandemic. It's scary to think about, but there aren't any cases in ND.

This article states that Mexicans are warned not to shake hands and keep a safe distance from others. The article also states that some feel there's no need to take precautionary measures yet. Let's think about that... Valley City residents and businesses said the night before the sewer collapse that there wasn't need to be so cautious yet. Yeah.

I certainly don't want swine flu in my area, so why can't the WHO do something to keep those infected out of human contact? One thing I hope health officials do is prevent this disease from spreading further. Reading about this kind of stuff is all very, very confusing. I am well aware of diseases in animals that humans can catch (bird flu, Mad Cow, etc.), but I always thought that was rare. Does my dog catch a cold when I have one?! :) Anyway, apparently swine flu is being spread by human-to-human contact. This makes it much easier to spread.

To add to the confusion, this is an interesting little blog I found about the swine flu. It talks about the possibility that this flu was produced in a lab because it has genes from human flu, bird flu, and swine flu. I'm not sure how credible this is, but I thought I'd share. After doing a quick Google search, I realized that this doctor isn't the only one who has conspiracy theories in his head about the outbreak.

Do you have any thoughts on the swine flu? Do you think it will become a pandemic?