Legal Research

Return of the Swine

By Simon Fodden

…flu, that is.

The WHO has declared a pandemic. Most of the increasing numbers of sufferers are to be found in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile. (See the BBC story, which has a video of WHO’s Dr. Chan making the declaration.)

It is the first time in 40 years that a flu pandemic has been declared. Unlike the one in 1968, however, which killed over a million people, this outbreak seems to result mostly in mild illness. A pandemic is a description of the widespread nature of an illness and not an indication, necessarily, of the severity of its impact on victims.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on June 11, 2009 (boomark / email).