All Blog Posts from World Watch

As millions of Muslims begin arriving in Mecca for this year's pilgrimage, Saudi officials face a unique challenge: how to prevent this sacred rite from becoming an inadvertent incubator and global transmitter of swine flu.

The conditions that will arise during the pilgrimage, or hajj, which officially begins in the last week of November, are the exact opposite of what health officials like to see.

An estimated 2.5 million people from up to 160 countries — including perhaps 15,000 from North America — will walk, pray and eat in close proximity to each other for several days. They will touch the same religious objects and sleep in crowded tent cities.

Some, inevitably, will arrive carrying the new virus strain, H1N1.

Read full post…

With no suspected or confirmed cases of swine flu, Cuba is going ahead with plans for it biggest annual gathering, the May Day parade through the capital’s Revolution Square on Friday.

The traditional early morning event draws tens of thousands of marchers bused in on city vehicles from neighborhoods in 11 municipalities throughout the city and across the bay.

Smaller celebrations will be taking place in cities across the island.

It is the sort of public gathering that most countries where cases of the H1N1 flu have appeared would not even consider.

And despite the fact that the World Health Organization says closing borders will not help and that countries should simply try for containment of the new variant of swine flu, Cuba remains closed to flights from Mexico.

Read full post…