Daily News Channel
Manufacturers and pharmacies are reporting a sharp increase in demand for face masks. Chemists in the UK and in France contacted by CNN said they had been out of face masks since Monday, attributing demand to fears over swine flu. Several told CNN they were unable to order new face masks as suppliers struggled to cope with demand
When CEOs and professional investors in developed economies go to bed these days, some may pray for protection from markets in turmoil, share prices in the cellar and angry financial gods bringing fire and brimstone with every check of their Bloomberg terminal or the front pages of The Wall Street Journal. “Spend, China,” they whisper.
While the swine flu raises public-health alarms globally, the prognosis for the world economy is not good if the outbreaks mutate into a pandemic. If there’s a pandemic on the level of the 1918 “Spanish” flu, a 2008 World Bank analysis says, it would cost the world economy $3.1 trillion and drop the world’s gross domestic product by 4.8 percent in the first year of infection. A pandemic like the less severe 1957 “Asian” flu would reduce global GDP by 2 percent, The World Bank concluded, while a pandemic like the most recent 1968 “Hong Kong” flu would cut world economic output by just under 1 percent
Edwin van der Sar claimed the all-time British record for minutes without conceding a goal during Manchester United’s 1-0 win over West Ham on Sunday. The Dutch veteran also took the 30-year-old English record from Steve Death last week. Death’s name, with all due respect to the former Reading custodian, is not up there with the game’s greats.
The outbreak of swine flu, which appears to have originated in Mexico, has crossed borders and datelines, spooked the travel industry — and thrown up some unfamiliar and uncertain terminology.
The first case of swine flu in Europe was confirmed Monday in Spain as a top European health official warned against travel to Mexico and the United States. Spanish health minister Trinidad Jimenez said a 23-year-old man who returned from studying in Mexico last Wednesday tested positive for the virus at a hospital in Albacete, southeastern Spain
As more cases of swine flu are reported in various parts of the world, governments and health officials have scrambled to take precautions to prevent the outbreak from entering their borders. The World Health Organization urged countries worldwide to look out for “unusual” outbreaks of flu following an emergency meeting. It said it will decide on Tuesday whether to raise the pandemic alert level
Concern that the world could be on the brink of the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years escalated Sunday as France, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Spain reported potential new cases in which people had been infected with swine flu and Canada confirmed several new cases. In the U.S., where 20 such infections have been confirmed, federal health officials declared a public-health emergency and are preparing to distribute to state and local agenciesa quarter of the country’s 50 million-dose stockpile of antiviral drugs. Meanwhile, in hard-hit Mexico, where more than 80 people have died from what is believed to be swine flu, the government closed all public schools and canceled hundreds of public events in Mexico City.
Health officials around the world worked to contain what appears to be a spreading swine flu outbreak early Monday, while one out of every five residents of Mexico’s most populous city wore masks to protect themselves against the virus.
As reports of swine flu continue to rise in the United States and around the world, the average American is probably asking, "How should I protect myself?" And the answer is: Do what you’d do in other flu outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising people to “take the ordinary steps they would take to protect themselves: frequent hand washing, and making sure you cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing.” By midday Sunday, there were 20 confirmed cases in the United States