H1N1

In a new report leaked to the press, the UN Health organization opines that the poorest countries in the world will be hard hit by the H1N1 flu unless the richer countries come up with billions of dollars to pay for vaccines for those poor countries. I know it will shock some, but the UN has missed the mark with this report. The biggest problem with the availability of flu vaccine is not the cost but rather the supply. Even with all out production, there will not be enough vaccine to cover all of the high risk populations in the USA, let alone in the rest of the world. Similar situations exist in Western Europe, Japan and the other developed countries. It is not likely that the developed world will leave their own citizens at risk in order to ship large quantities of vaccine to other sections of the world. Indeed, both the UK and the USA have pledged to sell 10% of their supplies to other countries; this is about as high as anyone could expect. After all, if H1N1 proves to be a major killer, Gordon Brown and Obama would not want to have to explain why they sent the one preventative abroad and denied it to the citizens of teh UK and USA.

So far, contrary to screaming headlines in the media, the H1N1 flu has not proven to be a much different threat than all of the other forms of flu out there. While the populations hit by H1N1 have generally been younger than other flu strains, mortality rates have not exceeded usual flu norms. Indeed, H1n1 has been a bit less dangerous than "normal" flu. this is not a reason to let down our guard against this disease, but certainly there is no reason for panic either. Let's hope that nothing changes here.