The Alberta farmer recently left Mexico. Canadian officials are quarantining a bunch of pigs testing positive for swine flu after a farmer apparently gave H1N1 to them. In case you’re wondering, this does not make eating pork dangerous. If they have swine flu, it will not get you sick. So don’t freak out. source
Apparently the rate of infection is not as widespread as we might have thought.
Mexico health minister José Ángel Córdova • On the swine flu (OK, H1N1) outbreak in Mexico. Despite claims that the virus affected over 900 people in Mexico, just 397 of them actually happened to have the virus. As noted previously, Mexican officials remain cautiously optimistic that the outbreak is slowing in their country. • source
The reality is that from the time the potentially pandemic virus is identified, it takes between four and six months to have the first doses of vaccine coming out of the factory and being available for immunizing people.
Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny • WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research, on the process of getting a vaccine out to the public. It’s not the quickest process in the world, but they’re already ahead of the game in one respect – they have the virus identified, which is a major step in production. In other news, the H1N1 outbreak (we still hate that name BTW – it’s not that we don’t think there should be another name, but it’s very clinical) seems to be flagging to some degree in Mexico City, which is positive. • source