Should We Be Panicking Over Swine Flu?

The big news for the past week has revolved around the swine flu outbreak in Mexico that has spread to a host of other countries. Before I go into the details about the outbreak let's first figure out what it is. Swine flu first off has little to do with pigs past the fact that most livestock including pigs, cattle and birds can carry the virus, you can't contract swine flu from eating pork, so for all of the bacon lovers out there eat away!

Swine flu is a strand of influenza and is transmitted mostly through human contact, like shaking hands, coughing and sneezing. There are loads of technical definitions about the flu that to be honest will only confuse the average Joe, myself included. The above breakdown should give you enough information to at least give you a basic understanding.

Now let's talk about the numbers and whether or not this is really something we need to start worrying about? As of April 28th there have been 150 that have died from the flu in Mexico and most of them live in Mexico city, there are about 50 or so confirmed cases around the world and most of them are very mild, these folks probably won't died and should recover fully. Let's talk about Mexico city for a second, it is one of the most populated cities in the world, there are 20 million people living there today and only 150 have died I hardly think this is something worth panicking over.

In Canada a country with 33 million residents have 400 people every year died from the common flu. So far the Swine flu has infected only 6 Canadians and they're all considered mild cases. In the US while there are 10 times as many people even more people die each year from the common flu and yet no one so far has been confirmed really ill never mind deceased because of the swine flu.

In today's world we have access to so much news and it's always available instantly. When something like this decides to grab a hold of the media it can more than ever become bigger than it really is and I think that's exactly what this flu is doing. Any disease that can spread as easily as this flu has is cause for concern at the medical level and I am glad there are organizations and bodies around the world that are designed to protect us. The media however causing this level of paranoia to me at least isn't healthy.

So let's all take a deep breath, preferably not near anyone with any type of flu and relax. You like most things in life have a much better chance of getting killed in a car accident on the way home from work today then dying from a cold or flu!

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