than 150 deaths in Mexico, where it first broke
out. Several other countries have confirmed cases of
swine flu but no fatalities have occured.
- The USA has 50+ confirmed cases.
- Canada has 6
- New Zealand 3
- Britain 2
- Spain 2
- Israel 1
Swine flu is caused by the H1N1 strain associated with pigs.
The present situation has been caused by the virus crossing the
species barrier to infect humans.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised
the alert level from 3 to 4. The scale ranges
from 1 to 6 with 6 representing a full-blown
pandemic alert. A level 4 alert represents "a
significant increase in risk of a pandemic".
The 20th century saw three major pandemics. In
1918, Spanish Flu killed more than 50 million
people. In 1957 Asian flu affected millions
worldwide and in 1968-69 nearly 34 000 people
died of Hong Kong flu.
To put these statistics into a clearer pespective,
they need to be viewed in terms of the number of
people who die from seasonal influenza every
year. Worldwide between 250 000 and 500 000 people succumb
to influenza yearly.
Many countries are advising their citizens not
to travel to Mexico or to affected areas in the
USA (New York, New Jersey and Texas have been
affected so far) except for absolutely essential travel.
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