Is It a Pandemic?

With every new virus there comes the question of its seriousness. Many viruses pop up and quickly fall off the grid while others become widespread and have more severe consequences. These differences all play a role into how governments react to different diseases whether its worth an intervention or not. This question is always brought up in light of new diseases and has recently been an topic of discussion with the rise of the new flu strain, H1N1 also known as the swine flu.

The swine flu is rapidly spreading across the Western Hemisphere causing much concern for government authorities. The virus is rapidly spreading and causing some fatalities. The issue at hand is over the seriousness of the virus. Many believe it doesn’t have serious implications for it is not very lethal on its own. The few deaths that have occurred in the North America have been due to complications with other viruses combined with the new flu. Some of these have been bronchitis and pneumonia. The debate is over whether or not the government should be upgrading its pandemic status to move the goalposts to delay or prevent a move to phase 6 (level of pandemic), by redefining it to include an assessment of the severity of the disease, and not only its geographical spread. "When is a pandemic not a pandemic?"** believes this should not be done. The status of a pandemic is not based off of severity but off of the geographical spread for a reason. The severity of a disease can change so that this new flu could simply just fizzle out or could strike with serious implications in the near future. Plus the severity of a virus is all based on perception. What might be deemed a very treatable, non-lethal, and mild virus for a rich country with many doctors might have great implications on a poorer third world country. This is why its geographical spread is more important of an issue and considering the way this new flu has spread there should be actions taking to prevent its spread.

In a different article Nature, "Flu-virus prevalence comes under scrutiny"*, it argues that the actual number of cases has no number. This could mean that it really might not be considered a pandemic even based off of just number of cases. Right now all numbers for cases are just predictions and recently this number has come under scrutiny. There is no actual info on number and most predictions are based off of reported flu symptoms, which often comes out to be false. Many times people report symptoms but it is just another virus such as the regular flu or just ne other virus. There is just no accurate way to report actual number and recently there is some consideration to the fact that authorities have just blown it out of proportion.

*"Flu-virus prevalence comes under scrutiny" Published online 24 November 2009 | Nature 462, 398-399 (2009) | doi:10.1038/462398a
**"When is a pandemic not a pandemic?" Published online 21 May 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.501