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Thursday, April 30, 2009 , 11:05 PM

It's amazing how the nitty gritty details matter, huh? First it was called Swine Flu, now it has been renamed the Mexican Influenza, or has it? It seems the World Health Organization (WHO) itself has been split into two camps over the naming issue, while this potential pandemic is taking the world by storm (albeit in a negative way), the world is divided over the name of this particular strain of influenza.

Why it should NOT be named Swine Influenza?

1. The Mexican virus does not only comprise the swine influenza strain

"The Mexican virus has genetic material from swine, bird and human influenza strains, according to Vallat of the animal- health group.

Classic swine flu, common in pigs, isn’t considered serious and transmission from pigs to humans is “exceptional"

Bernard Vallat, World Organization of Animal Health (Paris)

2. Human-to-human transmission

“There is no danger from eating pork. All transmissions so far have been human-to-human transmission.”

Gregory Hartl, spokesman of WHO (Geneva)

3. Economic reasons. Pork producers say the “swine flu” tag is hurting their business, citing sharp decrease in sales.

4. Sensitivity pertaining to Muslim countries.

Whatever it is called, we know this could potentially escalate into a worldwide pandemic. Gave me the chills when I read that some strains of the H1N1 are the culprits for the 1918 flu pandemic or more infamously known as the Spanish Flu/Influenza which took 50 million to 100 million lives within a span of a year (1918 - 1919). The WHO has just raised the pandemic alert to the second highest level. This Mexican Influenza really is like a nasty cocktail of bits and pieces of the human, swine and even avian strain. I really hope we nail the source of this particular strain of influenza.

Lots of people are snapping up gloves, sanitizers and surgical grade masks in an attempt to safeguard themselves from the Mexican Flu. We'll be flying over to Perth in the later part of May, so we'll definitely be keeping a close watch on the situation, considering the close vicinity between New Zealand and Australia. In fact, 16 West Australians have been tested for the influenza, of which eight had been cleared, two were thought to have the normal human influenza virus, and another six were awaiting results. One of them was reported to be a contact of a confirmed case from New Zealand. Grrr... gotta pray hard it's an all clear.

Hygiene really is one of the main, if not the most important line of defense we've got. The Singapore Goverment has pledged all its resources and efforts into preventing the onset of the Mexican Influenza for "as long as possible". Underlying meaning: it will reach our sunny shores, it probably is only a matter of time. I was watching news yesterday and Lao Lee was saying something similar and there were these clips of people dressed in scary looking suits and masks, like they were handling some nuclear leak. Pretty unnerving.

Images of the movie I am Legend kept coming into mind. Only this time, zombies won't look like these...