It's been about a month since the swine flu thing has started. Globally, people have panicked to contain and find treatment for this virus. However, the current "swine flu" virus has nothing to do with pigs anymore and has turned into a human-human virus, thus allowing outbreaks on a community level. However, the mortality rate for this virus appear to be the same, if not less, than the usual influenza virus. Of course, it could mutate into a much more virulent form, killing more people, but the rate at which it spreads would (probably) still remain the same.
Influenza isn't really designed (if you could call it that) to spread quickly and effectively, which is why it has been easy to contain it in the past. The influenza virus is gone in a week usually, minimising the time for it to spread. The victim either recovers completely, removing the virus from his or her body, or dies, preventing the virus from spreading further. As a result, influenza does not spread as easily as say, anthrax, which has a longer incubation period and has more time to multiply and spread.
So, considering that the new H1N1 may be just the same as the usual influenza, is it worth putting so much time and effort into stopping its spread, which actually may be quite low risk? Of course, I cannot rule out the possibility of the H1N1 becoming worse in the months to come, since this is just the start of the outbreak. The best course of action would probably be to continue the temperature checks etc., but not get more worried about it than we have to.
If any of my facts please inform me. I'll check and follow up =)
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