WITH people preoccupied by swine flu, there is another killer virus that puts the latest alarm in perspective.
It is the regular flu. And it kills 36,000 people a year in the US.
The swine flu virus would have a long way to go to match the deaths that seasonal influenza causes in the US each year.
"That happens on an annual basis," Dr Brian Currie told CNN.
Dr Currie is vice-president and medical director at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York.
Since January, more than 13,000 people have died of complications from seasonal flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly report on the causes of death in the nation.
No fewer than 800 flu-related deaths were reported in any week between January 1 and April 18, the most recent week for which figures were available.
Worldwide, the annual death toll from the flu is estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000.
About nine out of 10 of those deaths are among people older than 65 years, DrCurrie said. Most times, they already have health problems that the flu makes worse, he said.
"Regular influenza can be taxing," he said. "It causes their underlying disease to decompensate and then they don't have the reserves to get through it."
One of the reasons medical experts are nervous about the swine flu outbreak is that many of the people who have died in Mexico have been young and otherwise healthy. The strains found in the US have so far been weaker.
...or should epidemic be called the Mexican flu?
THE disease that has the world gripped in fear has given pigs a dirty name - despite the irony that no pig has been reported to be infected by the flu virus so far.
Swine flu? Hogwash, say pork producers over an issue which has taken on political, economic and diplomatic overtones.
Pork producers argue that the new virus has not yet been isolated in samples taken from pigs in Mexico or elsewhere, reports the International Herald Tribune.
While the new virus seems to be most heavily composed of genetic sequences from swine influenza virus material, it also has human and avian influenza genetic sequences, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, US.
Government officials in Thailand, one of the world's largest meat exporters, have started referring to the disease as "Mexican flu".
An Israeli deputy health minister - an ultra-Orthodox Jew - said his country would do the same, to keep Jews from having to say the word "swine".
In the US, Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack went out of their way at a press conference in Washington DC on Tuesday to refer to the virus by its scientific name, as the "H1N1 virus".
"This is not a food-borne illness, virus - it is not correct to refer to it as swine flu because really that's not what this is about," Mr Vilsack said.
Similarly, in Europe, comes this push for a change in name.
"I would suggest that you call it 'novel flu virus'," said European Union Commission spokeswoman Nina Papadoulaki, "just to avoid the misunderstandings with the animal diseases because it costs a lot to the (meat) industry. In this case, we have human-to-human transmission, so it is a human virus, not an animal disease."
Asked whether the World Health Organisation (WHO) was making a similar change, she replied that she had "no information at this point". The WHO website still uses the term "swine flu".
"There is no need to agree on the name of a new virus," the commission spokeswoman said.
Anti-pig-rearing
All that talk hasn't stopped some communities from over-reacting.
As many as 50 villagers in Alor Gajah, Malacca, took to the streets yesterday to protest against pig-rearing in their area.
With banners in hand, they demanded that the pig farms, which have been there for about 30 years, should be shut as they are a threat and could spark a swine flu outbreak, reported Utusan Malaysia.
One resident, Mrs Zahrah Bachik, 62, said that even though there has been no outbreak in past few years, it doesn't mean that there will be no outbreaks.
She said: "Since then till now, this issue of pig farms operating close to us have made us feel uncomfortable and worried us about such illnesses.
"And now, with this virus, our lives are in danger."
Mr Zakaria Othman, 46, claims that the villagers in his Kampung Pengkalan Balak area are living in fear since the swine flu outbreak was first reported on Sunday.
He said: "All this while, we tolerated it, but now, with such bad news about this flu that kills, how can we keep quiet?
"We do not mind a more modern rearing method as this ensures less risks of contamination."
Meanwhile, Egypt yesterday ordered the immediate cull of all pigs in the country as a precaution, reports AFP.
"It has been ordered to immediately begin the slaughter of all herds of pigs in Egypt," Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali told reporters after meeting President Hosni Mubarak.
He said slaughterhouses were due to begin the cull yesterday at the fastest rate possible, as pig owners expressed outrage.
MrGabali said Egypt - one of the countries most affected by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu and where 26 people have died as a result of that disease - was taking the threat of swine flu "very seriously."
