So the H1N1 virus is not a big deal anymore, right? Not according to this article, which has some pretty scary things to say.
“The Southern Hemisphere has been mostly spared in the swine flu epidemic. That could change when winter starts in coming weeks with no vaccine in place, leaving half the planet out in the cold.
Experts fear public health systems could be overwhelmed — especially if swine flu and regular flu collide in major urban populations.
“You have this risk of an additional virus that could essentially cause two outbreaks at once,” Dr. Jon Andrus said at the Pan American Health Organization’s headquarters in Washington.
There’s also a chance that the two flus could collide and mutate into a new strain that is more contagious and dangerous.
“We have a concern there might be some sort of reassortment and that’s something we’ll be paying special attention to,” World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said in Geneva.