SARS was overblown as an international news story, but it sure wasn't overblown in the places where it occurred. My friends dad never fully recovered.

Bird flu never spread between humans AFAIK. Did Mad Cow?

This may or not turn out to be a big problem. But one thing I'm sure about is that it's not just fear mongering. The disease is spreading between humans, and if the mortality rate is anywhere near what the numbers in Mexico seem to show, it will be a disaster. Let's hope the Mexico situation is just an accident...

Anyone travelling from Mexico should be placed in quarantine. We can not afford a global pandemic. All the right measures need to be taken to control the situation. Governments must have controls in place in case of emergencies. Better to stop the problem early then let it mutate and go out of control.

NJ5 now you're scaring me lol
(or giving me hope we'll see an action filled mass desease in the world soon, on top of the economical Crysis - that would be exciting!)

Could just be a weak immune system problem in Mexican people, but there are many more cases there and perhaps its just a numbers game and the more people that get it the greater chance of death.

The worst news is the US saying they have no way to contain it now that its coast to coast.

The numbers are far too small to draw any conclusions about mortality rate. We don't really even know the rate of infection in Mexico, all we have is the number of REPORTED cases and the death rate in relation to that. Mortality rate in comparison to reported cases seems to be about 7 or 8% but the actual mortality rate will be something less than that. Given the lack of deaths so far in other countries I would say the true mortality rate will be considerably less than 7%.

There is little doubt that we have a decent potential for a pandemic. The main thing that prevents a pandemic from happening every 5-10 years is that epidemiologists correctly predict the right strains to put in the vaccine for the year. This time round they got blindsided, which will happen from time to time. So the vaccine does not appear to prevent illness, but it may mitigate the worst effects.

OTOH we pretty much DO have a 'flu pandemic every year. Every year in most countries a significant number of people come down with the 'flu. That pretty much meets the low end of the definition of a pandemic. The thing that prevents it from being 1918 type of pandemic is that the strain for 99 years out of 100 is a strain of low virulence which is only potentially deadly for the old, infirm and infant.

What needs to happen for us to get another 1918 is that the epidemiologists don't predict the right 'flu strain, and that strain happens to be a particularly virulent one.

This time round it appears the epidemiologists have missed the mark, but fortune seems to indicate they didn't miss the mark by much. Early indications are that this strain may be more virulent than average, but probably not 1918 virulent.

The difference between SARS and 'flu is that SARS didn't appear to be highly contagious, and it had a fairly low mortality (1% is low compared to deadly diseases, e.g. bird 'flu kills about 95% of chickens (within 48hrs) in an epidemic, now that's deadly). A 'flu virus that can be transmitted between people is always highly contagious, so don't underestimate the potential for global spread.

If this 'flu "only" has lethal potential among those who are traditionally at risk of fatality then any pandemic that may result won't kill millions, but it will kill more than normal because the vaccine probably won't help the at risk population very much.

^ what were they saying about young people getting it? That traditionally it wasn't children and old people in this case.

I love how people claim that when something could've gone wrong and didn't the fear of it going wrong was just fearmongering.

Avian flu was and still is a threat, at the moment this swine flu is more a threat. Pandemics can happen, just becaue there hasn't been a huge one in nearly a hundred years doesn't mean there won't be one.

A pandemic can easily be fix by an atom bomb.

It didn't happen for nearly a hundred years because medical advancement. It's silly to compare now and 100 yrs ago.

so are you calling for the nucaler bombing of mexico then Galaki? I support that, while they're at it take out London too. Horrible place. And Liverpool. A vile city.