Swine flu (VocabGrabber)

An outbreak of swine flu in Mexico has raised concerns worldwide that the disease could be emerging as a global pandemic.

On April 29, 2009, the World Health Organization raised its alert level to its highest level ever in response to the fast-spreading virus, indicating that a "pandemic is imminent."

Federal officials said it would take until January, or late November at the earliest, to make enough vaccine to protect all Americans from a possible epidemic of the H1N1 flu.

International health experts, who say the epidemic will spread regardless of attempts at containment, advise against closing borders, which will not stop the virus but could cause economic collapse and possibly increase the death rate.

But it has shown very little ability to pass from person to person, mainly infecting poultry, and some experts have suggested that there may be something about the H5N1 virus that makes it inherently less transmissible among people.

Mexican health officials said the virus responded to Tamiflu and other antiviral medications if administered shortly after the onset of flu.

Virologists have tracked the avian virus since its discovery in Hong Kong in 1997.

In China, authorities have quarantined some 70 Mexican travelers in hospitals and hotels - many of whom have shown no sign of illness.

The virus that caused widespread panic in Asia in 2003, SARS -- severe acute respiratory syndrome -- is both easily spread and virulent.

Health authorities around the world are taking extraordinary measures to combat the epidemic and mitigate its effects.

Many of those lives would have been saved if anti-flu drugs, antibiotics and mechanical ventilators had existed.

There is not yet any genetic proof that this strain of influenza ever came from a pig.

The most common method of transmission is airborne, and it is also possible to become infected by touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching one's mouth or nose.

Many of those lives would have been saved if anti-flu drugs, antibiotics and mechanical ventilators had existed.

Mexican health officials said the virus responded to Tamiflu and other antiviral medications if administered shortly after the onset of flu.

In one sign that the disease may not be as serious as feared, Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said that the flu, influenza A(H1N1), appears only slightly more contagious than the seasonal flu, less than thought.

Most people lack immunity to this new virus and, as it continues to spread, health officials are expecting more patients in hospital and more deaths in the coming days and weeks.

Unlike typical flu seasons, when infants and the aged are the most vulnerable, none of the initial deaths in Mexico were in people older than 60 or younger than 3, a spokeswoman with the World Health Organization said.