Swine flu could affect third of world's population, says study

Researchers say that the swine flu will spread around the world within nine months. They have stated this after three more cases of swine flu have been confirmed in the UK. If The swine flu keeps spreading around the world in this rate, the virus will affect a third of the world’s population. Epidemiologist and disease modeler Neil Ferguson, who sits on the World Health Organization’s emergency committee for the outbreak, said “the virus is likely to spread around the world in the next six to nine months, and when it does so, it will affect about one-third of the world's population”.
A normal flu season affects about 10% of the world population. In the case of the sinew flu the effect will be three times as big. Ferguson states that decisions concerning the vaccine production have to be taken rapidly. The impact of this epidemic will be smaller in comparison to the one in 1968. Although the world’s population has increased, healthcare is also more developed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/12/swine-flu-report-pandemic-predicted

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Last week I was in Brazil and the only news program in English was CNN. The news was dominated by the swine flu or the H1N1 virus as it is called in the USA. In the Netherlands the virus was hardly mentioned in the news. Since this week it seems the whole world is more involved and concerned about this virus. Living in the western world I am not that concerned about the virus. Since healthcare in the Netherlands is well developed.