Daily Lesson from Life 27 April 2008

"Over 100 dead in Mexico flu outbreak, markets jittery
U.S. declares health emergency as flu spreads. -Mon, Apr 27, 2009 Reuters

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - Governments around the world moved to contain the spread of a possible flu pandemic on Monday, as a virus that has killed 103 people in Mexico spread to the United States and may have reached as far as New Zealand.

Fearing another setback for the fragile world economy, markets reacted nervously to the swine flu outbreak, which has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to activate its 24-hour 'war room' command centre.

The yen and dollar rose while Mexico's peso fell, although Mexican Finance Minister Agustin

Carstens tried to reassure markets, saying the impact on the economy would be 'transitory'.

Shares fell in Asia and Europe, with travel and leisure stocks such as Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways and British Airways down sharply, whereas makers of drugs and vaccines, such as Roche, were higher.


No deaths have occurred outside Mexico from the new strain of swine flu but 20 cases have been identified in the United States and six in Canada. Possible cases are being checked as far afield as Europe, Israel and New Zealand.

Countries stepped up surveillance at airports and ports, using thermal cameras and sensors to identify people with fever.


Japan's cabinet held a special meeting and said it would prioritise production of a new vaccine.

Health authorities across Asia tried to reassure nationals, saying they had sufficient stockpiles of anti-flu drugs to handle an outbreak.


The European Commission called an urgent meeting of health ministers.

The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people. A 1968 'Hong Kong' flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally."

Almost a de javu feeling about this swine flu outbreak or fear of it breaking out when you think about the SARS virus crisis in 1997! The world connectedness is once again displayed for all to see. With the advent of transportation means and the constantly moving population across borders for work or study or live!

Lessons for me are:

1. the world is very small in reality;

2. virus can originate from anywhere in the world and not just the privilege of Asian countries as some Westerners might like to think!;

3. the world has learned well and the news were reported and shared almost instantly so that authorities all the over world can take appropriate preventive actions to contact the potential spread of the swine virus! This compared to the painful experience of SARS where the Chinese authorities initially were trying to suppress the news in order not to 'lost face' internationally as well as not to 'unnecessarily alarmed' people internally!

4. as leaders, we must act with openness with all stakeholders because when you are open with bad news, you may get a chance to mobilize all the resources you can master as others are willing to share due to that awareness. This is the way to turn the bad news into something positive! A force to energize and get people into actions to resolve the issues!

May the swine flu be just a false alarm and that those already infected and back in their respective countries like New Zealand, USA, etc be cured and no further fatality surfaced!

p/s: As to how can pig gets the bird/human flu virus, we can debate about this on separate occasion!