Swine flu update

According to SciDev.Net:

The WHO director-general, Margaret Chan, has said that the swine flu — influenza A(H1N1) — pandemic may not be conquered until 2011.

She said it was "prudent and appropriate" to monitor the evolution of the virus for the next 12 months, Reuters reported last week (29 December).

Cases have peaked in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, she said, but are still increasing in countries such as Egypt and India.

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's special advisor on swine flu, said last month (19 December) that logistical and regulatory issues caused delays in distributing A(H1N1) vaccines to the developing world.

Comment: We missed the bullet this year! However, there is always a chance for an antigenic shift and there remains a large portion of the global population which has not been exposed to the swine flu and might both be able to spread the disease in the future and be quite sick if infected. JAD