GENEVA, Switzerland (The Dissociated Press) - A virulent strain of influenza virus, composed both of swine and avian flu, and transmittable between humans, continued to stoke fears of a possible worldwide pandemic Tuesday, as the World Health Organization, head-quartered in Geneva, raised its pandemic threat level index from "very serious" to "oh, merde!!"
Health officials in the U.S. Tuesday reported the first known death from the virus, which has killed an estimated 160 people and sickened over 2,500 in Mexico. And, with new cases of the disease reported in Australia, Canada, Spain, Israel, Britain, and New Zealand, concern over its spread has diverted attention from other troubling developments, such as the global economic melt-down and the fact that Osama bin Laden has put a sizeable down payment on a 50-acre luxury estate in suburban Islamabad where he plans, among other things, to keep Pakistan's entire nuclear arsenal, once the Taliban complete their takeover of the country.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is sending a team to Mexico to investigate claims that pig farms there were the source of the influenza --- or "swine flu," as it has been popularly dubbed --- outbreak in humans. Several countries around the world have banned the import of American and Mexican pork products. Meanwhile, demonstrating what it says is its "concern for public health," the U.S. pork industry lobbied strongly this week for the government to stop referring to the virus as swine flu and, instead, refer to it by its "easier-to-remember" scientific name, Influenza H1N1.A-TX_2∏±4-FQ.
Some critics of modern industrial agriculture say that the chances for avian and swine viruses to combine and be transported with human pathogens, as with the current strain, have been greatly increased by the highly concentrated, factory-like livestock and poultry "farming" that prevails in much of North America today.
"Before World War II, poultry and pigs were basically farmed in small backyard operations all across the country, and the amount of animal-to-animal or human-to-animal contact was very limited" said Robert Wallace, visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and author of the forthcoming book Farming Human Pathogens: Ecological Resilience and Evolutionary Process. "It was not a very efficient environment for cultivating pathogens, which is what you want, obviously.
"But nowadays, with these huge, overcrowded industrial meat and poultry plants --- they're not farms --- that have taken over the industry, where tens of thousands of animals are not raised, but are "housed and processed," often by large teams of minimally trained laborers working under stressful conditions, it's like having the pigs, chickens, and people, with whatever pathogenic microorganisms they're carrying, sealed up in a big Petri dish!"
In Washington, President Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in supplemental funding Wednesday to purchase pharmaceuticals, primary health care, and enhanced public education targeting the influenza outbreak. Recognizing the growing potential for public panic, however, he also tried to inject a bit of levity to the request.
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, the President said, "For those of you in Congress who reject my request, because you're ideologically opposed to more government spending, and you continue to look at the failed Bush economic policies through rose-colored lenses, just let me say this: it's fine if you want to keep putting lipstick on that pig, but, for all of our sake, just remember not to kiss it!"
