# 3028
In my ill-timed absence news stories about a newly emerging `swine’ flu virus have been breaking in rapid succession – particularly over the past 48 hours.
While it is too soon to know just how serious this virus will end up being, there can be no doubt that many public health scientists are watching these developments with concern.
This story is, after all, unfolding much in the way that an outbreak of a novel pandemic virus might be expected to play out.
But that doesn’t mean a pandemic has begun, or that this virus will spark the next pandemic.
So, before everyone heads down to the bunker, it should be noted that there is a lot about what is going on we don’t fully understand yet.
Sure, this outbreak could have `legs’, and this virus could go on to have a major impact . . . . but it could also recede back from whence it came.
Right now, it is impossible to know what will happen.
The Swine Flu outbreak at Ft. Dix in 1976 vanished as mysteriously as it first appeared (see A Case of Deja Flu) , and the short-lived `lethal flu mutation’ (see Sometimes . . . Out Of The Blue) in England and Wales in 1951 died out in a matter of weeks.
SARS, which appeared in 2003, died out more or less of its own accord as well.
We honestly have very little idea why sometimes a virus persists, and sometimes it simply fades away.
And of course, even while this new `swine flu’ rears its ugly head, the H5N1 bird flu virus continues to percolate in places in Indonesia, Egypt, Vietnam and presumably China.
No matter what this virus ends up doing, that threat hasn’t diminished.
So regardless of what happens with this virus, we should be looking at this incident as a valuable learning tool. A reminder that – almost overnight – a new pandemic virus can leap onto the scene.
Good enough reason to review your personal and business pandemic and disaster plans, to make sure you have the emergency supplies you and your family would need to deal with a crisis.
This is also an excellent time to talk to your friends, family, and neighbors about the need to be prepared.
Maybe we get lucky.
Maybe this virus peters out, or never becomes the killer flu that we’ve feared from other viruses.
I hope so.
But if it does fade away, I hope we are wise enough use this as a wakeup call.
To accept it as a not-so-gentle reminder that we are vulnerable to pandemics, and other disasters, and that being prepared is our best defense against whatever comes next.
For more information on how to prepare for emergencies, up to and including a pandemic, the following sites should be of assistance.
FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm
READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/
AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/
For Pandemic Preparedness Information:
For more in-depth emergency preparedness information I can think of no better resource than GetPandemicReady.Org.
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