Swine Flu - a potential pandemic pathogen

Just when we thought the flu season was over for this year, we get the news of clusters of swine flu cases in the USA and deaths in Mexico.  The CDC and WHO are now alerting people of the potential for a pandemic (meaning, worldwide spread of the same disease or infection).  We have been working on global and local planning  for several years now and this is an important part of  the strategy for management of a pandemic.  Communication is a key - we learned that with the SARS Crisis of 2003 when the Chinese kept the initial cases under wraps.  However, the communication we heard today: "we are now "declaring a medical emergency" - can be pretty alarming.  The  media was describing Mexico City as a ghost town and runnning the footage of Mexicans being given surgical masks by policemen if they were outdoors.  But, a surgical mask does not protect you from viruses.  The strategy is to limit people from gathering in groups because they could be exposed to sick people coughing and sneezing on them.  Being outside in parks and fresh air allows dilution of the virus.  What a shame - that all those people in Mexico City were hiding inside their houses today- sharing air and microbes.  It is wise to cancel special events and large gatherings but that doesn't mean confining everyone indoors.  There was alot of reinforcement on the news from public health officals about "good hygiene like hand washing".  I wished they would have emphasized the equally critical behavior - to cover your coughs or sneezes with a tissue or your sleeve. (check out the Nanobugs Training T-Shirt as a tool to teach this technique www.nanobugs.com/shop.php

The purpose of closing schools is essentially to limit the exposure of students and teachers to potentially sick students.  But when people see  footage of dramatic cleaning of the school environment - it leads them to think that influenza A is environementally spread.  Swine flu and Avian flu are influenza A.  They are spread by coughs and sneezes. Course, hand hygiene is always a good strategy to interrupt person to person transmission.  I hope you will keep this situation in perspective.  Be patient and allow the epidemiologists to do the proper investigations and make their decisions based on the information they collect about the microbes and the confirmed cases. 

This entry was posted on April 26th, 2009 at 12:00 am. RSS | Back to Blog Homepage.

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