PRECAUTIONS Dozens of deaths have occurred from the swine influenza outbreak in Mexico. People wore surgical masks on Monday in Mexico City. Gregory Bull/Associated PressFrom Live Science:
The swine flu drama is advancing like wildfire, with the Mexican death count rising steadily, U.S. cases doubling, and the World Health Organization moving a step closer late Monday to declaring the incident a full-on pandemic.
Will this flu become a global pandemic in humans, like AIDS or the "Spanish flu" of 1918–1919 which killed an estimated 50 million people in 18 months?
Declaring a pandemic is a big official deal. It's the more global version of an epidemic, which is a disease outbreak in a specific community or region or population. The word "pandemic" has a specific meaning to doctors and researchers, and once officials apply it to an outbreak, even more money and other resources are rushed to victims. Not to mention that there hasn't been a flu pandemic in more than 40 years (the "Hong Kong flu").
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