Swine Flu Is Over. The Next Travel Worry: Hybrid Flu!

(MoneyWatch)  BNET previously wrote about how swine flu hit the travel industry hard, decimating tourism in Mexico and making flight crews become a combination of triage nurse and security guard by screening passengers for symptoms and barring them from flights. Passengers could no longer have pillows or blankets because they could carry viral germs, and hand sanitizer became ubiquitous on flights, in airports and hotels. Then the global pandemic seemed to disappear by January, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Noting this, the World Health Organization decided to announce today that the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, pandemic is likely over -- but that countries should continue with innoculations and safety precautions for the next big pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that although the flu is waning, there will likely be waves of new, hybrid strains.
Risk communications expert Peter Sandman told Reuters that public health agencies will likely be saying that influenza and pandemics are hard to predict.

"We came into the pandemic with a very high expectation of deadliness. We are going to come into the next pandemic with a very low expectation of deadliness," Sandman said. "And the next pandemic could be next week. Whatever it is, it is going to be incredibly hard to get people to take it seriously."

Medical experts say that a hybrid strain of avian flu, or H5N1, mixed with seasonal flu could create a supervirus that could wreak global havoc (so, of course, scientists mixed them together and proved that yes, it was indeed deadly.) But will passengers, having spent months of wallowing in antibacterial soap and worrying about imminent death, have swine flu fatigue and not heed the warning of a possible new virus from WHO or the CDC?

According to CNN:

The toll, while devastating to the families of those who died of H1N1, has not matched early projections of as many as 90,000 flu-related fatalities in the U.S.

H1N1 may have killed as many as 17,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In an average year, about 36,000 people die from seasonal flu-related causes, according to the CDC.

Today, the visible signs of fear have ebbed. Many vaccination clinics report low turnout and have cut back their hours, according to local news reports. A recent health poll by the Harvard School of Public Health reported that nearly half of those surveyed believed the outbreak was over.

While I don't blame WHO for declaring a pandemic nor am I saying it was a false alarm, the threat of H1N1 savaged Mexico's tourism industry and it still hasn't recovered from the serious hit. Once our country issued a travel advisory for Mexico, people canceled trips and cruises and the hysteria grew until people no longer appeared in public. (This was back in April when the United States only had 42 reported cases.)

So I think people should listen to what the WHO has to say, but I also realize there's only so many alarmist messages people can process. In the midst of a depression, terrorism threats and security problems, most airline, bus and train passengers have more to worry about than a sniffle or cough. But if they sit by me, I still hope they wash their hands.

Photo: Axayacatl