Recently there have been alot of bad news appearing on newspapers affecting the worldwide economy. In case you don’t read newspaper, the latest news that is going to affect the world is the SWINE FLU virus!

Basically what is swine flu?

• The swine flu virus causing concern (influenza type A, H1N1) appears to contain genetic material from human viruses, North American bird viruses and pig viruses. It may be completely new or it may have been around for a while having become only recently detectible due to new testing and surveillance procedures.

• As a number of cases have had no direct exposure to pigs, the concern with this virus is that it has the ability to transmit between humans. This is something that the H5N1 bird flu virus never really attained (Super Dangerous!).

• Young adults (20 to 35 year olds) are the hardest hit in Mexico.

• While it has apparently killed 150 or so people in Mexico, the death rate is unknown as thousands may
have been infected and simply recovered. So far there have been no reported deaths outside Mexico. For example, some New Zealand students who are thought likely to have contracted the swine flu after a trip to
Mexico don’t have severe symptoms and some reports indicate they appear to be recovering. As such the
deaths in Mexico may have something to do with its less able health care system. It is also worth noting that
hundreds of people die from flu every year anyway.

• More significantly, while there is no vaccine that protects against swine flu, two anti-viral drugs, Tamiflu
and Relenza, have been effective against the new strains according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

• Australia is well prepared with a stockpile of nearly 9 million doses of anti-viral drugs, including Relenza.
Australia also has a well developed plan to deal with a pandemic. Today many countries are also far better
prepared given all the concerns about bird flu over the last few years. Less developed countries are of course
more vulnerable

Singapore had experiened Sars (2003) & bird flu-H5N1 (05-06) and now we may be facing the new flu virus. I am very sure at this time, stock market must have catch a ‘flu’ also. News over the weekend about the deadly virus is shaking the whole financial market. So far, those british airline stocks were showing a fall of 10.60%, tokyo airlines and travel agency were also hit by the swine worries but only companies making drug treatments are earning.

From all the news all over the world, i guess we are really facing one of the worse hit recession and to people out there, please take care of yourself and make sure you don’t travel oversea at these period of time. Life is precious so treasure it! Hope you are also covered by private shield plan to ensure your hospital bills are taken care of!

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