The Kardia Remark
“Awake, O north wind, And come, O south!”Archive for News
Swine flu
This current health threat situation shows not only that the world has not yet vanquished contagious and curable diseases, but also shows the comparative preparedness of the developed and developing world in dealing with such a danger.
Swine influenza is contracted by humans from already-infected pigs, then travels from human to human
Most people will have heard about the recent outbreak through media outlets by now, so I won’t go much into detail (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/ if you haven’t).
But what I found interesting is that in Mexico, at least 26 people (some estimates suggest hundreds more) have died from the disease in half a month, with 172 more confirmed cases. Meanwhile, across the border where there are about 3 times more people, 70 cases have been confirmed and no one has yet died from the disease.
Perhaps this is more because of the timing of the disease’s spread to the United States, or the lower population density in the States, but I just thought it’s an interesting comparison.
Some people have picked up on the overreaction to the pandemic. 36,000 deaths are caused by human influenza every year in the United States alone, dwarfing the Mexican death toll from the current outbreak. I’m not saying the current swine flu death toll isn’t tragic, but it’s certainly not as comparatively a big health hazard as many believe.
A negative stain electromagnetic image of swine influenza
