Swine flu and you

Swine flu and you

Dallas Morning News: Remember all the fear and anxiety over a potential avian flu pandemic? Turns out all that storm and stress has served us well in the face of the swine flu outbreak.

Public health authorities have spent years getting ready for a moment like this. U.S. officials have acted with exemplary clarity and dispatch, delivering warnings and information to the public and urging people not to panic but to make sensible preparations.

In fact, what has become a disaster for Mexico may turn out to be no big deal for the U.S., where all cases so far have been mild. During a 1976 swine flu outbreak, Washington’s overreaction to a minor threat wasted $200 million on a useless vaccination program, causing thousands to die from regular flu, for which there was a vaccine shortage.

Take it seriously

We don’t know yet how bad this one’s going to be, which is not to minimize concern. This is a very serious matter, and not only for public health reasons. The worldwide economic meltdown is unprecedented in that globalization made economic contagion impossible to contain. Similarly, global air-link connectivity made this flu outbreak unstoppable. Global markets already under distress are shuddering over what a true global pandemic could do to an ailing world economy.

Going forward, how should this rapid dispersal of swine flu from Mexico to points across the planet change the World Health Organization’s pandemic flu strategy? That’s one issue that must be explored when this is over.

Here’s another: Scientists have for some time warned that large industrial farms serve as incubators for mutating forms of viruses that could make the leap from animals to humans. Virus hunters should examine what role, if any, vast Mexican hog operations played in this outbreak and whether factory farming poses a major public health threat.

That’s for later. For now, it’s important to stay focused on remaining calm and taking common-sense precautions. The U.S. government’s www.pandemicflu.gov site is full of helpful information and advice. Use it.